Howard's Change
by tmb1112
Summary: A few weeks after being stranded on an empty planet, on a deserted island, something happens to Howard that changes him. Story focused on Howard's personality shift to a braver, stronger, more determined Howard. Somewhat of a harem fic, centered on Howard. R/R
1. Chapter 1

"Howard!"

"Howard!"

The blonde boy turned away from the group yelling at him and muttered, "ch." The girl he just made fun of was covering her eyes with an arm and ran to the door of their house in the tree.

Howard never liked admitting he was wrong, or apologizing at all for that matter.

"You hurt Sharla's feelings," Bell scolded. Howard growled; Bell was supposed to be his follower, but he always sided with the others. "How do you think she feels?"

Even the quiet Kaoru was glaring at him from across the fire at Everyone's House. Howard always had to mess things up when they were going smoothly. He had a big catch that day, but they couldn't enjoy his fish when Howard goes off telling the shy girl she's useless.

"If she brought back more food maybe it wouldn't be true," the arrogant blonde kid retorted and Menori got in his face, shouting back at him.

"Enough," Luna jumped between them and Howard smirked as he turned away. She always got between him and whoever he was arguing with. He knew they were right a lot of the time, but as long as Luna was there to stop the argument, he didn't have to worry. "Howard," her voice was more stern than usual, "you should apologize to Sharla."

His eyes went wide, "Ehh?" He looked back and saw everyone staring at him. He tilted his head up towards the house on top of the tree and other than the sounds of the crackling fire, he could hear a quiet sobbing up in the tree. 'Is she really that upset?' His face changed for a second and everyone thought he was going to go, and then it returned to a wry grin and he turned around again.

"She'll get over it," he grabbed his bowl of food and walked away. They weren't going to leave him alone about it so he had to eat somewhere else. 'By morning they all will have forgotten about it,' he convinced himself.

He didn't go too far from the campsite so that the others could still hear him if he screamed. There were dangerous monsters in the forest after all. The boy walked out and sat on a large rock overlooking Fairy Lake.

It wasn't as comfortable as his bed in the boy's room, but it would do for the night. Suddenly he heard laughter on his left and looked across the bit of shore that he walked down to see the fire raging higher than before. Everyone was outside laughing and eating together, including Sharla.

'Good, they made her feel better,' he smiled and lay back on the rock. Then he frowned, 'I mean, now it'll be easier to walk back in like nothing happened.' He tilted his head sideways so he could watch them as he lay down and the happy campers looked ready to go to bed.

"When I'm not there they decided to have a party," he grumbled. 'Or maybe it was because I wasn't there...'

He stared up at the stars above his head, lost in thought about the other students he was stuck here with. The empty island was full of danger and peril, but also fun adventures with the other kids. 'Friends... No. They're not my friends,' he turned his head to the other side and rolled so he was as far on the other side of the rock as possible from the tree. 'Friends wouldn't leave me out here for the night.'

Sc

"Luna don't," Menori grabbed the orange haired girl by the arm. The girls were all getting ready for bed, but Luna said she was going to look for Howard.

"But..."

"We all know Howard," she was frowning but smirked a little, "he's too scared to go far from the tree. Besides, it'll do him and Sharla some good with a little distance."

Luna looked at the shy girl with glasses who was looking down sadly on her bed. She'd cheered up from one of Luna's special pep talks earlier, but she could tell what Howard said was still taking its toll.

The girl seemed to notice Luna was staring at her and shot out of bed. "No really it's fine, we shouldn't leave Howard out there." Though the words left her mouth, there was no conviction behind them and her friend could tell.

Luna was the leader and it was her decision. She finally sighed, "You're right Menori, we'll give him some time to cool down."

Sc

"Oof," Howard rubbed his head and looked around before groaning. It was he middle of the night and he'd fallen off the rock he was lying on since he pushed himself so far from the side near the tree.

He wiped off some dirt on his clothes and walked towards the water to get a drink. The boy looked down at the edge of Fairy Lake and wondered whether or not he should go back. His own reflection in the water made him grin and he put his thumb and pointed finger on either side of his chin. "Hello handsome Howard Junior."

All of a sudden his eyes opened wide as he looked above his reflection. There was a glowing yellow light in the water, except it was just like his face, a reflection. His head turned slowly up where he saw something coming out of the clouds in the distance. There weren't any stars in sight with the light cloud cover, so it could only be one thing.

"It's a ship," he whispered. He got up fast and started running down the shore towards their home, "It's a ship! Everyo..." his voice caught in his throat and a sly smirk spread across his face.

In a devious tone while he rubbed his hands together, the blonde child turned back and started running the other way closer to the descending ship and whispered, "If I come back with help they'll have to praise me. They'll forget all about the Sharla thing and accept that I'm the greatest." 'And it won't matter that I pressed the button,' his smile went away and he dug his feet in the ground as he ran harder, 'it won't matter that it's my fault we've been stuck here all this time.'

Howard jumped over roots and rocks. He climbed up a small cliff and kept the light in sight as it got lower. It was definitely glowing and now without a doubt it was a ship.

He figured he was far enough that the others wouldn't hear him and as he kept running, he held his arms above his head and waved them, "Oi! Oi we're down here! Hey!"

He reached a stream and didn't care that he'd get wet, running straight through it. "Oi! Hel-" he tripped on a root and his face skid on the dirt. "Owww," he got up and rubbed his cheek. He was starting to get annoyed that the ship showed no signs of changing course and coming towards him.

"I said I'm over here!" He yelled and jumped up in a small clearing. The ship was finally low enough that he got a good look at it and it made him smile even wider. It was one of his father's ships.

'Howard Corporation,' was written in big letters on the sides, but Howard recognized it since he worked on the designs with his papa. Now he knew for sure that his dad had people looking all over for him. 'Ha, and Shingo thought we needed the communications device to get help,' the blonde kid was about to shout again when he noticed something.

It was just like when they arrived in the shuttle. The sky was dark and the clouds were getting thicker. He watched as a bolt of lightning hit the ship and smoke started coming out of the top. "No!" His chances at being rescued were going down the drain and he was angry. The ship changed course a little and was getting closer to the ground fast as it spun around.

Whoever the pilot was, was amazing at his job. Howard stared as even though flames were coming from the ship, the ship was staying a little steady and managed to stay flat as it came down. It was further in the forest a ways, he thought maybe even in the Eastern woods, so he started running that way. The ship was about to get to the tree line and Howard thought it was actually going to land, and then the second lightning bolt hit.

It flew out of the sky and slammed into the cockpit of the ship, knocking the nose down and Howard heard the loud crash at the same time as his feet felt the vibration. He didn't know how far away he was from it, but his thoughts weren't on whether or not the crew was okay, he thought about the other students and wondered if they woke up from the vibrations.

Sc

"Kaoru, what are you doing up?" Luna asked the black haired boy in front of her. Both of them were in the living room and they thought they heard something which is why they woke up in the first place.

He kept his voice down as to not wake the others and looked out over the ledge where Howard's empty lounge chair was resting. "I don't know," His eyes glanced over the chair, but he wondered if the boy was in danger deep in the woods somewhere. Luna seemed to be thinking the same thing and when she looked out, she gasped.

"Is that, smoke?" She looked farther out and could definitely see some smoke coming out of the trees.

Kaoru growled, "That idiot better not set the forest on fire." Their food supply was slim as it was, they didn't need he fruit trees turned into ash.

"I'm sure he has it under control," Luna chuckled nervously. She thought she heard a loud crash which woke her up, but a long yawn reminded her that it was probably nothing. "It's going to rain in a little anyways, he'll head back when it does."

Kaoru nodded and then muttered, "I'm going to watch to make sure," he stared out and Luna shrugged as she headed back in the girl's room.

"What was it?" Sharla asked and Luna looked up to see both of the other girls awake.

"Oh nothing," Luna laughed and waved her hands, sorry for waking the others. "Howard just made his own fire."

After being there for around a month, it seemed like something they should all be able to do easily, but still, the girls chuckled as they thought about Howard trying to make a fire on his own.

Sc

Howard was walking the trees slower than before. He'd slowed down his running at first, but then he got to the trail. Next to him on his right was a path of broken trees and a huge trench that looked like something had skid through it recently.

There were small fires in the trench that the boy ran over to and stomped out so they wouldn't catch, but he could see the larger fire up ahead.

He kept slowing down until he got up a hill that the ship skid up. He looked down off the other side and saw the ship flat out with large dents all over it. The hull was breached in several places and the cockpit was destroyed.

There were flames coming out of the ship on different sections and Howard didn't know what to do. Before he could panic, he felt a raindrop on his dirty nose and looked up. The downpour didn't take long to start and he walked closer to the ship he wasn't as worried about anymore.

His eyes wandered around the broken pieces all over and he wondered if Shingo could fix it. Bell would need to help carry the pieces and they'd have to get Pague over to help. Luna would feed him while he and Kaoru pulled the ropes and led the massive elephant. His grin disappeared as he saw them.

When the glass of the cockpit shattered, the people inside didn't stay, inside. His eyes went wide and he felt puke in the back of his throat but he kept it down. There was someone lying halfway out of the glass and as lightning struck, he saw the blood all around them. It looked like the other pilot was thrown from his seat and Howard looked away from the man hanging off a branch in the tree.

"I should get the others," he muttered to himself. He was right next to the ship now and stumbled backwards, landing on his butt. "Ouch," he moaned and then he heard coughing on his right that made him snap his head that direction.

'Someone made it!' The boy ran to the side of the ship and to the broken part of the hull where someone was sticking their legs through first. "Are you here to save us?" Howard shouted and then saw the blood dripping down the person's leg. He decided to leave the important questions for later and reached in, pulling the metal up a little to make room and then yanking the person out of their ship. "Are you alright? Who are..."

The person pulled from the ship and the child who pulled him locked eyes and both of their jaws dropped. "P-Papa!"

"Junior?!" The man pulled from the ship asked in a quiet voice. His son dropped down and wrapped his arms around him, already crying about how scary and hard the island was and how the other kids were all annoying. "Son," he knew it was really his son after hearing only a few sobbed out sentences and he smiled wide. He started coughing in a fit and his son lifted his head up off his father's chest and looked at his dad's face.

"What's wrong?" The boy asked, wiping away tears. 'He's here! I knew he'd send for me, but he came himself! That's how much my papa loves me!' "Are you hurt?"

The smile on his dad's face was deceiving and Howard Senior tried to move as he shook his head 'no.' When he moved, pain coursed through his body and he moaned.

The blonde boy looked up as thunder cracked and lightning lit up the sky. Rain was pouring down on their faces, but Howard could see the color of the liquid on his father's face, and it was red. "Papa you're hurt," the boy reached up and yanked on the sleeve of his red shirt. He ripped it off and looked around his dad's head for the wound.

"You've sure become resourceful," his dad joked and started laughing. His laughs quickly turned into coughs, and this time they didn't stop and he felt a tremendous pain in his side. The man lowered a hand from his son's face since he determined this was real, and he lowered it to his side. The leader of the super corporation's eyes went wide and he let go of the huge shard of metal sticking out of his side. "Son," he started and the boy wrapping the cloth around the small cut on his forehead smiled down at him.

Howard saw something in his father's eyes that he didn't like. It made him scared, more scared than he'd been since... ever. "P-Papa, what's wrong?" His dad's expression changed in the last minute from one of joy to resignation. "You found me, I'm alive!" He shouted in an excited voice and his father just smiled at him.

"I'm sorry my son," the father whispered and lightning shot across the sky again. While everything was lit up, Howard saw something sticking out of his papa's side and he started shaking his head. "I'm sorry-"

"Don't say that," the boy argued and rose his voice. "Don't say," he stopped and smiled, "there are other students here. One of them might be able to help. Menori Visconti showed me how to wrap a bandage like this, she probably knows more about it. And this girl Luna, she's really smart and..."

"Oh," his father said with a genuine smile. "You've made friends too," his dad closed his eyes and smiled wide showing teeth as he chuckled. "And I thought nothing good came from this," the man was truly happy. The deaths he saw inside the ship of the rest of the crew in the back of his mind as he finally found his son. "Junior," he started and his voice was lower now.

The child was shaking his head and repeating the word, 'no,' in a defiant tone. He didn't want to hear anything his dad had to say while he was talking in 'that' tone. It was the same tone his mom used on her deathbed, and now he was doing the same thing.

"I'm proud of you," his father finished and Howard lifted his gaze in shock. He stared into his father's eyes and they kept staring at each other like that for ten, twenty, thirty seconds.

The child getting rained on realized his papa wasn't blinking. "Papa?" He asked, confused at why his dad's gaze didn't really seem to be on him any longer. "Papa! Papa!" He started shaking the man but Howard Sr.'s eyes stayed focused straight in front of him and the wide smile on his face never changed.

Howard stopped. He stared at the man in front of him and let go. When he was shaking his dad he didn't really care where he grabbed, but one hand was right under the large metal shark sticking out of his father's side, and now it was soaked it red. The kid's mind was swirling and he started screaming as he ran his hands through his hair over and over again. "Ahhhhh! AHHHHHHH!" His voice carried over thunder and he kept screaming until he was sure his throat was bleeding, and then kept going still.

The fires on the ship had all gone out except for one and Howard's eyes gazed on it as he was too exhausted to scream anymore. He looked down at his dad and with shaking hands he reached down and grabbed him. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice hoarse and drowned out by the rain. "It's my fault. I dislodged the escape pod. Everyone's stuck here because of me. You're dead because of me."

The child was dragging the grown man across the mud and towards the fire raging near him. "I let you down and if you'd seen me since I got here, you'd take back that you were proud of me." He stopped when the flames were too hot for him to continue and he pulled his dad up alongside next to him. "But you won't have died in vain papa," the kid's voice wasn't even audible to himself and just came out as a scratchy whisper.

The rain was still coming down hard and Howard rolled his father into the hole where the flaming piece of wreckage lay. He stared at his dad and thought about saying more, but the smell became too bad really quick and he threw up on the ground next to the flames. His throat was already on fire, and this shot so much more pain through his body but he took it without a single tear.

He turned around and started walking back through the woods the way he came. 'We have to get off this island, this planet. We have to get home.'


	2. Chapter 2

The rain stopped at the break of dawn and when the residents of Everyone's House got up, they didn't even know there was a storm the night before.

They all got up at around the same time and Luna smiled at the other girls as they got out of bed. "Me and Kauru are heading out to catch breakfast," Bell called into the ladies' room.

The tan-skinned boy looked back at Kaoru and they nodded. Shingo yawned and sat down at the table where he was going to get to work on the communications device, when he saw Howard coming out of the woods outside their fence. "Howard's back," he called out and the girls got changed faster and ran out to the living room.

Kaoru grinned as he was climbing down the tree and made sure no one saw him. Bell turned with a wide smile and waved in his direction. All of them were at least a little worried that Howard never came back during the night.

The two boys climbing down the tree found that the others were all now piling down behind them. They walked out the front door and everyone stood in a group as Howard reached the fence.

Luna was the first to realize something was wrong. It wasn't his dirty and soaked clothes; everyone noticed that a few seconds later. She didn't see the ripped off sleeve or the cuts on his arm and face, though a few seconds later she noticed that too. Her eyes focused on the frown on Howard's face. It wasn't his usual arrogant frown showing he was annoyed at something, it was much deeper than that.

The others all noticed everything else about Howard at the same time and decided not to let him come to them. They all started running forward and shouting.

"What happened to your shirt?" Menori shouted since she got stuck with the laundry all the time.

"Why are you all wet?" Chako asked in a loud voice. She realized the ground was soaked a second later and realized it rained the night before.

"What happened to your face?" Bell saw the scrape on his cheek and dirt covering his face. It didn't look good.

"Where were you all night?" Sharla asked. Even though he was the one being mean to her, she felt bad that he spent the whole night out there because of her.

"Did you put out the fire?" Kaoru asked and Howard tensed up.

The blonde boy turned his head and stared right into Kaoru's eyes. The other child was not expecting the look he received from Howard, or the tone of his raspy voice when he asked, "How'd you know about the fire?"

Howard didn't know if they saw the ship or not, but he thought if they did they would have shown up after a while.

Luna answered for the stunned Kaoru and stepped closer to Howard than anyone else. "We saw it last night," she responded and the boy in front of her nodded. "Howard," she said in a quiet voice, "are you okay?"

To the others, his scrapes weren't that bad and his clothes could be fixed and cleaned. To Luna though, there was something else wrong. She could see the traces of blood in his hair.

"I'm fine," Howard's arrogant tone started and he waved her off with a flick of his hand. His voice was hoarse and it sounded like he lost it overnight, "I just need a good shower," he laughed and the pushed Bell and Kaoru out of the way so he could walk between them to the shower.

His push was surprisingly forceful and both other boys stared after him as he walked away.

"Howard," Luna whispered. She stared after him until the kid was near the shower area. Finally she turned around and started giving out directions to the rest of them who nodded and moved out.

She was working on the garden with Sharla while the others were all away from camp. It wasn't the design she'd set up the day before, but she wanted to be around their home when Howard was ready to talk. She kept Sharla there too in case Howard felt like apologizing which seemed unlikely. He acted like nothing was wrong when he came back and they all accepted it again.

Sharla saw her friend sigh and knew what she was thinking about. "It's okay Luna," she assured and the orange haired girl turned to her in surprise that she knew what was on her mind. "I know he probably feels bad about what he said. Let's just work together for now on okay?"

"Right!" Luna said and was about to get to work when she saw Howard step out of Everyone's House. He was staring straight ahead at the woods he came out of that morning, and then his head snapped over to the garden where the two girls watching him flinched.

He thought they didn't see it, but right as he turned, both girls saw the deep grimace turn into a toothy smile. "Yo!" He called over and started walking towards them with his hands in his pockets. He was wearing a different shirt than yesterday and the two girls smiled and waved back as he walked over. "I'm gonna take the day off, is that okay Luna?" He asked and both girls lowered their bottom lips a little.

When Howard wanted to take a day off, he took a day off. He'd never asked before, and the way he was standing there awaiting an answer from their 'leader' was too weird. "Uhh s-sure," Luna accepted, glancing from him to Sharla to him again. "You had a long night so I guess I can acce..." Luna faded off.

The second she said 'long night,' their friend stopped smiling and his eyes weren't focused on her anymore.

'Papa, why did you leave me? Why?'

"Howard!"

The boy shot his head to the left a little and saw Luna a foot away. "Uh, sorry," he said. She was yelling at him from a foot away and he was completely ignoring her for a few seconds. "Thanks," he remembered her saying 'sure' and he turned back for Everyone's House. As he was a few feet away, he said in a loud enough voice for the girls to hear him, "Sorry Sharla."

Howard walked slowly and his hands drifted out of his pockets as he climbed up the inside of the tree. He got upstairs and looked around. Fatigue was catching up with him, and he knew he had to go to sleep soon.

His eyes drifted over Shingo and Chako who were staring at him and he barely even noticed them. He focused on the blue chair in the living room and he thought back to how it got up there.

'"Move it Bell! I need this to look out over the lake!"'

'"Can't work today! My seat is too comfy!"'

'"Don't touch my seat! No Shingo, only I can sit on it because it's mine!"'

He walked towards the seat and stared at the back of it for a few seconds.

"Uhh Howard," both the robot cat and two year younger boy were feeling a little unnerved by this situation. Howard walked right past them with the most intense hatred they've ever seen in his eyes. Shingo was staring at him through his glasses and he asked, "Wh-What are you-"

The blonde boy lifted a leg and kicked the back of his seat. The movement was so sudden that the other two dropped their jaws and then dropped them further as the seat broke through the wooden planks and arced over the shower.

Luna and Sharla looked back over at the house. The two of them were talking about what could be wrong with Howard since he apologized to Sharla, and then his chair went flying through the air, landing in the water with a huge splash. They looked closer and Howard was panting hard at the hole in the wall as he stared down at the ripples going across the water.

"Howard! What was that for?!" Chako yelled. The pink creature stood up on the log it was using as a chair and pointed at the hole Howard was now walking away from. "That was 'your' chair! You loved that chair! Besides that, who's going to fix the wall?!"

"I'll do it when I wake up," the boy sounded so tired that neither of the other two said another word to him as he turned the corner. Less than ten seconds later they could hear the heavy breathing in the room next to them of a sleeping person.

Sc

"Hey Kaoru," Bell started after fishing with the other boy in silence for so long.

One of the main reasons Kaoru liked working with the larger boy most out of the others was that Bell stayed quiet most of the time. It allowed them to get their work done faster so the tan boy talking meant it was something really on his mind. "What is it?" The boy in all black asked as he stabbed a fish through the gut with his spear.

Bell felt a little uncomfortable, but he continued, "Did Howard seem a little," he stopped and frowned. He'd been thinking about it all morning, but the shove Howard pushed him with, it wasn't a 'move so I can get past shove' it was a 'get out of my way or someone's going to get hurt' kind of shove. "Different?"

Kaoru tried to keep his mind away from the problems of others, especially Howard. Mainly because he cared least about the stuck up asshole than any of his other fellow students, but also because he didn't want to get too attached. At any time they could get eaten and he didn't want to make too good of friends with any of them.

Somehow after such a short time, he'd found himself attracted to them anyway. He cursed himself that he'd risk his neck for the sake of others, but they were a group and he was part of it. Howard was part of that group too. "Hmm," the boy muttered, "he was a little, less jerky than usual." He thought that Bell would crack a smile off of that, but the tan-skinned boy was actually concerned.

"Ask him when we get back later," Kaoru stated and the conversation was over.

Sc

"Everyone! Mina!" Menori shouted as she ran out of the woods. The girls who were farming were preparing lunch with the fish the boys brought back. Shingo was setting the table and Howard was still asleep.

"Menori welcome back!" Sharla called out to their friend who was out of breath. The usually composed violinist had her hands on her knees and was panting hard.

The others were all jogging towards her since it seemed like she had something important to say. She lifted one of her hands off of her knees and pointed back in the woods. "A ship, crashed," she took a deep breath and then started explaining how she came across some broken trees that made a path to a recently destroyed ship in the woods.

"Was it functional?" Shingo asked and the girl shrugged her shoulders.

"I never went in," Menori admitted. When she saw it she dropped her fruit and went running back. "But it must have crashed last night since a fruit tree I picked from yesterday was one of the ones knocked over."

"What's going on?" The group turned around and saw Howard walking towards them from the tree. He had a straight face and it only shifted slightly when Shingo exclaimed that Menori found a ship in the woods.

"Was it working?" Howard asked. He'd already seen the state of the ship, he knew there was no way it could fly. He'd be stunned if any of the equipment was still working.

"Let's go check," Luna suggested and everyone agreed. As a big group they traveled through the woods with Menori in the lead and Howard taking up the rear.

Bell looked back a few times and Luna followed where he was looking. 'Looks like I'm not the only one who's noticed something weird about Howard.' She didn't want to look back to make it too noticeable, but she did anyway and saw the blonde boy staring off through the trees, not paying attention to where they were walking at all. 'The Howard I know would be shouting right now.' Luna didn't like this new solemn expression the boy had on his face but she heard Menori shout from up front and had new things on her mind.

The ground ran up the trail of broken trees to the top of the hill and looked down at the broken ship below. Menori only got a glance of it last time, but now that they were looking around, she wished she had better prepared them.

There was a man bent over a tree branch and he was missing a leg but either he didn't mind, or he was dead and couldn't scream. They all tried to assume the former. There was another person covered in blood bent out of the broken cockpit of the ship.

It was an impressive vehicle even in pieces. It had white smooth wings where they weren't dented, and looked like it was made by a big company. "Look!" Sharla pointed and they stared at the words near the back of the ship'a center.

"Howard Corporation," a few of them read out together and then turned to Howard to see how he would react.

His jaw was lowered and he looked shocked. When the others all started moving down towards the ship though, his face went back to normal and he looked a little to the left of the side of the ship. There was a pit in the ground and he was the only one who noticed the black leg sticking out of the hole.

"I want to get in the cockpit and see if their communications device is still working," Shingo started in a hesitant tone, "but..." They all looked up at the cockpit and knew he didn't want to go in through the broken glass with the dead body.

"We'll have to go in through the ship," Menori offered. They all started looking for entrances and finally Kaoru shouted out.

They ran over to where his voice was and Howard's blonde hair cast a shadow over his eyes. It was the same hole in the hull he pulled his father from.

There was a trail of blood leading from the inside of the ship to right outside the hole where there was a puddle on the floor. "Wait," Luna started putting two and two together, "someone made it out of the ship."

They all looked excited at the aspect of an adult being there. All of them except for Howard who followed the blood trail with his eyes. The others noticed it too, and after the large puddle, the trail continued thicker than before and they walked with it up to a hole in the ground.

There was a large chunk of metal at the bottom of the pit, but what made most of them look away and Sharla lose her breakfast, was the burnt corpse in the hole. It was unrecognizable, but it wasn't down to the bone. Everything was black around the man and the others all looked away fast while Howard stared down in shock at the body.

He wanted his papa to burn to dust and float with the wind, scatter across the island. Something better than a burned up body in a hole.

"Here," Luna got back to the task at hand, "I'll go in first. I don't really know what I'm looking for so Shingo you want to come in with me?"

The younger boy seemed hesitant but he nodded and walked around the puddle to the hole with their leader. Luna was going to tell the others to look around some more when she froze and they followed her gaze back to the pit from before.

Howard had the corpse by the armpits and was dragging him out of the hole. He got the body ten feet away before it chipped and the bottom half broke off as he was dragging it. 'I'll bury you. It'll be a nice grave, a good grave,' Howard was trying to keep himself calm until the second the body broke.

The blonde boy stopped moving and everyone looked over at him. They were all taking it pretty hard, but this was one of his father's workers. He had to feel partially responsible for what happened.

Then he screamed.

It was horrible. The others clenched their ears as Howard dropped the top half of the body he was dragging and fell to his knees. He put his hands in his hair and screamed at the top of his lungs again.

The others weren't covering their ears because it was so loud, because it wasn't. Howard had lost most of his voice the night before. They closed their ears because his cries sounded so painful that they didn't want to hear it.

"SORRYYYyy!" He screamed at his maximum volume. His voice was trying to heal, but it cracked again and came out raspy for his next scream until he bowed his head accepting defeat.

Luna ran up to Howard and the others were behind her. "You have nothing to be sorry for," the girl told him but he was shaking his head that he held in his hands. His hands covered his eyes but tears were seeping in between his fingers and dripping on the floor. "It wasn't your fault they..."

"It was me," Howard whispered and the others all stared at him as his tears stopped. He lifted his head and stared at them all with bloodshot eyes that had tears coming down on either side of them. "I was too scared to tell you before, but it was me."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Luna whispered back to him.

"The escape pod launch, it was me." Everyone stared at him with wide-eyes. "It was an accident, in all the confusion it just happened." Some of them wanted to be mad at him, but it was hard when he was sobbing in front of them. "And now he's dead," he said in a higher pitched voice. "They're all dead, because I played around with the buttons."

"Howard you didn't..." Shingo started but the older boy stopped crying instantly. His tears stopped flowing and he wiped his face once.

"I killed them," he said and Kaoru winced. He felt the same way when he thought about Louis. Howard grabbed the top half of the body and started walking away, "The least I can do is bury them."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N I'm changing the format a little now where the way you can tell if a character is thinking is going to be with _Italics,_ no longer the 'single quotation marks' so just a heads up.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Uninhabited Planet Survive**

 **Chapter 3:**

The day after the lost children discovered the crashed ship, it was still on all their minds. Shingo hadn't found any working equipment, though he did take some parts that he thought might help him with his work fixing the communications device. Howard was still taking it the worst out of all of them, despite the many talks his fellow students had with him to try and make him feel better.

Luna and Menori were sitting in the living room staring at the patched up hole in the wall where Howard had spent the morning. No one mentioned his chair, but the fact that he kicked it out _before_ they found the ship confused them.

"You think he already saw the ship?" Luna asked and Menori nodded solemnly.

"He was out there that night, he probably saw it crash." They both remembered what he looked like when he got back to camp. It was like his hopes and dreams were crushed and after seeing their chance at rescue destroyed, they couldn't blame him.

"But why wouldn't he tell us?" Luna asked and the other girl had already thought about that a lot.

"I think," Menori began. She was unsure of herself since it didn't seem like Howard at all, but she continued, "he didn't want to get our hopes up, since he already knew how bad of shape the ship was in." Her mind wandered to Howard on his knees screaming and she shivered.

The orange haired girl was thinking the same thing and they sat there for a few seconds longer in silence. "I think someone should stay with him for a little while. Bell's hunting with him today, but he shouldn't be alone right now."

Menori agreed and continued, "I don't like how Kaoru is always doing things by himself either. He and Howard need to stay with the group to help us all benefit." The two of them nodded and looked out in the vast, perilous jungle around them.

Sc

"Keep up Bell," Howard called out behind him. He was running with a spear in his hand and the larger boy with his own spear was trying to keep up.

Bell had never seen the blond haired kid run this fast for this long before. He could hear Howard's loud panting that was turning into wheezing in front of him and he called up, "I don't see it anymore Howard. Maybe we should give up?"

The rich kid pretended not to hear him and kept running towards the direction the Tobihane was running. _I'm not going back with nothing. Not again._ He continued sprinting and caught a glimpse of the animal at the base of a tree, nibbling on a plant.

The arrogant brat inside him wanted to charge forward and claim the kill for himself, but he knew it would escape him again so he waited for Bell to catch up. The tan boy didn't seem nearly as tired but he wasn't running like his life depended on it. "Shh," Howard ordered without turning around and Bell saw the animal they were chasing. He was surprised they caught up to it and more so that Howard wasn't trying to kill it right now. "Circle around the other side, I'll chase it in your direction."

The larger student nodded and snuck around the bushes. He stepped on a twig when he was almost all the way around the Tobihane and the creature shot it's head up. It snapped either direction and Howard knew it was now or never.

He sprinted out of the trees straight towards Bell with the animal in his path. The creature knew it could outrun him and started hopping the same direction Howard was running. The blonde child was gaining on the creature and it was more worried about him catching it than looking where it was going. The next hop it made was its last as Bell sprang up from the bushes with his spear raised.

The Tobihane leapt straight onto the spear and impaled itself through the throat. Bell tried to angle it this way to cause the cute creature as little pain as possible and then he smiled at the notion that they were having meat for dinner. "We did it!" Bell cheered and looked at Howard who was smiling at their good work too.

The blonde kid looked up, "I chased it towards..." His automatic smug reaction to rub his accomplishment in Bell's face fell short and he stared at the tan-skinned child who seemed confused at why Howard wasn't still smiling. "Yeah, we did it," the blonde kid agreed and the walked over and grabbed the animal. "I'll carry it," he said and pulled it off of his hunting companion's spear, tossing it over his shoulder.

An hour later they made it back to camp and the two gardening saw them and ran over. Sharla looked more sad than the younger boy who was literally drooling at the sight of meat. She never liked seeing a dead Tobihane but she had to admit, they tasted good.

"Great job you guys," Sharla congratulated and smiled at Bell.

"It was easy," Howard bragged and smirked as he walked away. _I could've been catching them this whole time if I had just allowed Bell to help me. Now we'll see who brings more food back Kaoru,_ as he finished the thought he heard gasps and turned around to see the black haired boy walking out of the woods.

Kaoru had a rope over either shoulder with six fish on either one. He caught a dozen in all, but when he saw the Tobihane on Howard's shoulder he was surprised and walked in. The two boys with meat on their shoulders looked at the other's catches for a few seconds, sizing up who had the bigger haul. Neither said anything, but Kaoru grunted and walked away to start cleaning and gutting the fish as Bell went over to help him.

Shingo offered to help Howard skin the Tobihane while Sharla went back to the garden, but the older boy didn't want any help. He could at least do some things on his own. _First I cut here, then,_ he was looking around the animal and he needed this hard work. Anything to keep his mind off the sight of his dead father as he dropped dirt on top of his body.

None of the others watched yesterday as he put the burnt man in the hole. When he started digging more holes though, they all started helping and carried out the rest of the crew and the pilots outside over to the holes. They had a small funeral service afterwards. Luna thanked them for trying to save the group and everyone wondered whether or not the crew had found them which is why they came or if they were just looking around here.

If they knew that the kids were here before they arrived, then it was possible another ship was on its way, or maybe this crew got word out to another ship or colony before they crashed. Still, no one wanted to get their hopes up so they tried to ignore that possibility.

To celebrate all the food they got, at night, they had a feast, (against Menori's wishes). It might have been a waste of food that could have lasted them another day, but they all felt one was in order. They hadn't had a celebration since Everyone's House was completed two weeks ago, and everyone was in sore need of one.

They didn't even know what they were partying for, but it felt great having a larger fire than normal and not worrying about rationing the large helpings of meat they got. Howard and Bell's Tobihane was delicious and a good break from fish every day.

The only problem with the supposed party, was that Howard wasn't there. No matter how much he got on everyone's nerves, he was the loudest of them all and his absence was clearly noticeable. It wasn't that he wasn't _at_ the party, because he was sitting on a log just like the rest of them, just eating his food and staring at the fire.

"Hey Howard want to go for a swim?" Shingo called over to the blonde child who lifted his head and stared at the younger boy in glasses.

"No," he denied in a loud voice and the others grinned and continued to talk and laugh about adventures they had that week. Howard looked around at them all and thought back to when they were all working on the house together. _When they're not yelling at me, it really does seem like we're... friends._ A small smile escaped on his lips.

"What are you smiling about?" Menori asked. She'd been keeping an eye on Howard the whole time and the boy started grinning all of a sudden.

He turned to her and frowned, "None of your business," he told her and the girl scowled back at him and got on her feet. "Go stick your nose in someone else's business," he waved her off which only made her more mad.

"You're such a snob," she scolded him and the boy scoffed, turning his head the other way.

"Would a snob have caught dinner for everyone?" His arrogant tone only made Menori angrier as it seemed like he thought he was better than them because he managed to catch a Tobihane.

"Calm down Mina," Luna stepped between the two of them and held her arms out to keep their distance from each other. Menori looked on the verge of strangling Howard so she had to do something.

 _Damn that boy,_ Menori turned on her heels and walked over to sit with Sharla instead. She was supposed to always be the most composed of everyone, but Howard could set her off unlike anyone else.

"Ch," Howard turned around too with his arms crossed and Luna sighed in relief. "Thanks Luna," the boy whispered as he sat back down.

The orange haired leader froze where she stood and stared down at the rich kid who thought he was the best at everything. Luna was surprised he said that, _actually, has he ever said that before? Ever?!_ She couldn't think of a single time he thanked her the entire time they were on the island. Even when she saved his life, multiple times, he just screamed for his papa and ran away, never saying thank you.

"Hey Luna!" The girl was snapped out of her thoughts with the sound of splashing behind her. Bell, Shingo, and Sharla were playing in the water and her friends were waving to her, calling her in. Everyone was wearing the clothes they had on at the party and they would just let them dry afterwards.

"Here I come!" She ran over and cannonballed into the water. It was colder than she thought, but then something weird happened. She felt her body shake and opened her eyes to find her vision full of purple. She'd felt this way before after going in the lake but today was stronger. She could almost hear someone in the low noise that came with the feeling.

It was gone after a few seconds and she emerged from the water with a confused look on her face. She looked around and the others were still splashing around while her other friends ate by the fire.

Menori and Howard were trying to talk to Kaoru and the quiet boy stood up and walked away. He hadn't eaten any of the Tobihane part of the meal and Howard was angry about it. Luna sighed and got out of the water to stop the fighting, but Kaoru didn't seem in the mood.

She stared at the cooked Tobihane and then over to the wooden dock they made over the edge of the water. "Hey Kaoru," she whispered as she walked over. The boy didn't look up at her, but she bent down and put the small bowl down next to him, "Everyone's working really hard together. You don't have to be alone," she decided to let him think on that and walked away.

Howard was staring over at Luna from the fire-pit and he watched as Kaoru stared at his food and then looked back away. _Ch, if he doesn't want to eat the food I caught then fine._ He never did like Kaoru anyway.

The party winded down slowly until everyone decided to go to bed. It was a long couple of days but they were all excited to keep up the good work. Howard stared up at the ceiling in the boys' room and he saw a dim light on the side of him. He pretended to be asleep and rolled so his face was in that direction with his eyes squinted almost shut.

Kaoru was sitting up on his bed and staring at an ID card in his hands. _That's not his_ , Howard thought as he saw the smiling child in the photo. The way Kaoru was looking at it made Howard shiver and he closed his eyes, deciding to go to sleep for real now. _Papa, I'll make sure you're really proud of me._

sc

The next day the students were walking around Everyone's House. Some were gardening, others doing laundry, others working on fixing the comms device. Howard was helping Bell dig a trench for potatoes when he heard it and froze. It was a sound he never wanted to hear near their home and he yelled, "Get inside!"

Bell looked at him confused at why he shouted, but Howard was already running to the side and grabbing a spear off the fence. As he grabbed it, the huge lizard showed it's snarling mug popping up above the other side of the fence. "Ahh!" Howard stumbled backwards and fell but kept his grip on the spear.

"Howard!" Sharla called over from the front door. Everyone else was running inside but she saw Howard using his hands to push himself back.

The lizard with large sharp teeth climbed over the fence and was staring at Howard menacingly. The blonde kid finally realized he had to get up or get eaten and he pushed himself to his feet.

"Howard!"

"Howard!"

The others were calling to him from the living room of their treehouse and Bell was now holding the door open for him, telling Sharla to get to safety. "Howard come on!" Bell shouted and the blonde boy kept walking back slowly. He kept his shaking spear pointed towards the monster and tried not to trip on his feet.

It snapped its jaw towards him and Howard responded by stabbing his spear forward and making the monster rear up on its hind legs to dodge. While it was pulled up, the child turned and ran for the door, making it inside so Bell could close it. He was panting hard and heard the growling on the other side of the door that made him shiver harder.

"Let's go upstairs," Bell said and Howard nodded. The two of them walked up and the thinner child was surprised by the smiles the other students met him with. He thought they'd yell at him for taking so long to get there, but they all just seemed relieved that he was okay.

The group of them watched as the giant lizard walked around their tree and tried climbing its way up. After twenty minutes it gave up and walked over to the small pier, reaching down and eating the Tobihane out of the bowl left there.

"It was that damn Kaoru," Howard shouted and slammed his hand down on the table. "He left his food out and the monster got attracted to it."

"It's not his fault," Luna defended the other boy but Howard crossed his arms and kept grumbling about Kaoru under his breath.

Said kid was walking out of the woods at that moment and saw the lizard in their camp, now eating the fish he'd worked so hard to catch. Kaoru jumped the fence and kept his spear raised, yelling at the beast and walking towards it.

"What are you doing?!" Menori shouted down at him.

"Get up here!" Shingo called down.

"Kaoru!" Luna yelled.

 _Serves him right,_ Howard thought and then frowned. _He'll be fine though. Kaoru's always fine._

The black haired boy moved out of the way as the lizard tried swiping at him and he stabbed up with his spear, hitting the beast. The blonde boy watching from above smirked at his prediction while the others kept shouting at the fighting kid to run. Kaoru looked surprised at the monster his weapon got stuck in that was still growling angrily at him instead of running. He tried to pull out his spear but he wasn't fast enough and the monster lizard was swiping again.

It hit him in the arm and the others' eyes went wide as they watched blood splatter from Kaoru's arm. "Kaoru!" Howard shouted down but Luna was beyond the point of just shouting.

The orange haired girl jumped down off the tree and started yelling at the monster that turned around and saw her. "Go away, I can handle this," Kaoru shouted at her while grabbing his injured arm with his other hand.

"No! You go inside Kaoru!" Luna yelled and the monster started running towards her. The boy looked hesitant, but he wasn't going to waste this chance and ran for the door as Luna dodged the beast and ran too.

They both got inside and climbed up to the living room where they were panting, completely out of breath. "You could've gotten killed! What were you thinking?!" Luna shouted at him when they'd regained their breath.

"You didn't have to come," Kaoru growled, "I was only risking my own life."

She stared him right in the eyes and yelled angrily, "Your life is important Kaoru. Treasure it!"

Howard hmphed and looked back over the wall where the lizard went back to eating their food, only now that he had a spearhead in his side, it was knocking down the stuff they built and destroying everything.

"What are we going to do?" Sharla asked in a scared tone as they watched the monster eat another of their fish.

Menori stepped forward and looked around, "I have an idea."

The girl explained it to them and everyone got to work. They were setting up the pulley and getting everything ready for the plan. When it was done, Luna climbed down the side of the tree a little and held out a rope loop. The giant lizard was coming towards her and started reaching up to grab her.

After a few misses, the girl finally got the loop around the monster's foot and they lifted it up in the air with the pulley. All of them except for Luna and Shingo were pulling the end of the rope and they managed to swing the monster over the water.

They started to cheer, but too soon it seemed as the branch Shingo was on shook and he fell in the water. At the same time, the lizard fell in too only a few feet away from him.

The younger boy dropped his spear as he fell in and it was the first thing to surface. After the spear came up, Shingo's head popped out of the water and he was smiling. They were all relieved he was okay, until the lizard's head popped out as well. "Shingo run!" His friends shouted at him and he started swimming away.

Luna looked down and there was only one option for her. While the others were shouting, she ran forward and dove off the tree branch too.

"Luna!" Howard shouted and reached out but the girl hit the water and it splashed up around her.

She was doing the same thing she did to distract it from Kaoru except for Shingo this time. Howard clenched his eyes and fists and his nails dug into his palms. _What are you doing?!_

Luna was panicking in the water as the lizard was now heading her way and she heard a strange voice in her head along with the weird sensation she felt in Fairy Lake. It told her to get the spear and she turned around to see it floating close to her.

As she was swimming over, Kaoru was running up the tree branch and had his spear ready. The other students were all watching him afraid and then they snapped their heads back down to the water where there was a splash between Luna and the monster.

The beast was too close to her and he didn't think she would reach the spear in time, so Howard jumped in between and held up the spear he grabbed off the fence before. He got the monster in the stomach with it and grinned, thinking he'd killed it.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

One of its claws came out of the water faster than Howard could see and it smacked him across the face. The nails slashed him, but it was the force of the impact that lifted him out of the water and soaring through the air where he bounced on the surface of the water, his mind already going black.

"Howard!" Luna shouted and then grabbed the spear near her and slamming it up under the bottom jaw of the lizard. Her weapon jabbed right through its skin and she could see it in the monster's mouth, but it just got more angry and snapped its jaws shut, crunching the spear and spitting it out.

It looked down at Luna like she was its next meal and then felt something land on its head. Kaoru jumped down and stabbed his spear straight down into the skull of the beast. It stood there for a few seconds not knowing what happened, and then the blood splattering from its head got in its eyes as they closed. The lizard started sinking down in the water, but it was no time for celebration.

Luna nodded at Kaoru in quick thanks and then they turned around. The two kids in the water stared at Shingo who was trying to pull Howard to shore while keeping his head above the water.

"Howard!" Kaoru shouted and the others were all shouting his name too. No one thought Howard would have done something like that in a million years and they didn't understand why he did, but he took the blow for Luna and she had wide eyes as she climbed out of the water and stared down at him.

Shingo and Kaoru pulled Howard out of the lake and laid him down on the dirt in front of their tree. The others were all running towards them but no one paid attention to each other as they were all staring at the bloody kid on the floor.

"Howard, no, please," Luna was whispering to herself and soaked from head to toe. She couldn't believe Howard had done that, for her. Sure, she did the same, twice, for the others in the same day, but she always got out of it unscathed. This was different. He was...

The water washed off a lot of the blood and they saw the three sharp lines going across the right side of Howard's face. The cuts were deep with one right below his eye and the other two close below that. Blood was seeping down his face again and the kid was fading in and out of consciousness.

His eyes were partially open and he saw Menori and Chako bent down over him. They were trying to stop the bleeding, but they became fuzzy and his eyes closed for a second. When he opened them back up he saw Luna's face hovering right above his as the others were talking in loud voices around them. She had tears in the corners of her eyes but Howard didn't know why and his vision got all fuzzy again so he blinked to make it better.

This time when Howard opened his eyes, he was lying somewhere softer and realized it was a bed. It wasn't his own, he knew that much, but it was soft and he lifted his head a little. Pain shot through his head and he moaned in pain from the massive headache he felt, but then he saw two people shoot up off the floor in front of his bed and turn to him with smiles.

"Howard! You're up!"

 _Up? I only closed my eyes for a second,_ he thought about closing them again, but now he had doubts about whether or not he'd be able to open them again. "What happened?" He asked and saw that Shingo and Sharla were the ones at the foot of his bed. _Wait, Shingo... and Sharla?_ He didn't know why he was so okay with seeing the two of them near him while he was sleeping.

"Luna!" Sharla called out and another two girls ran into the room. The one with orange hair had tear streaks coming down her face, but her eyes widened as she saw Howard sitting up on his bed.

Menori was less than happy and ran over, lightly pushing his chest to get him back to lying down. "Don't move," she said to him sternly.

"Why not?" Howard asked back but he stayed laying down. Everything was hazy for him but he didn't know why this girl was giving him orders. _Oh yeah, she's the Student Council President. But she still has no power over me, my papa owns the biggest corporation in the galaxy._ He smiled and then realized why this wasn't his bed, _We're on the island! This is Everyone's House!_

He shot up when it all started coming back to him and the others were looking on nervously as Menori tried to keep him calm. "Are you okay? Howard talk to me," the girl demanded in her most authoritative tone.

"What happened?" The boy repeated. His face felt a lot of pain but everything was really foggy when he tried to think about it. At first he was confused as to why he was happy that he saw them all in his room, but now he realized that he was out of it and was trying to remember harder.

"You were hurt," Luna said in a quiet tone as she walked over. She looked sad and tried to smile to make Howard feel better. "It's not too bad though," she was glad he couldn't see his own face as she said that. It looked like an animal had gotten to him... which it had.

"The ship!" Howard snapped out of bed again as he remembered seeing the ship falling out of the sky. "It got hit by lightning, did-" he stopped as he remembered watching it crash. The others opened their mouths wide that Howard had actually seen that.

Then the kid remembered something else, seeing his dad's logo on the ship. "Papa! Papa's here to save us!" He shouted and ignored the pain in his head and stood up.

"Howard," Luna whispered. It was hard to see it the first time around, watching all their hopes get up just to get smashed again. They all knees he was about to remember how bad the ship was destroyed, but they didn't expect his reaction.

"No, no no no," he grabbed his head and shook it as the memories came flooding back. He was about to scream again but Menori jumped forward and clamped a hand over his mouth. "Mmmm, mmMMM!" He was screaming into her hand, his whole body twitching like crazy.

"You can't strain yourself anymore," the girl told him like a parent scolding their child. Howard started remembering everything else after what happened too and then what just happened started coming back to him. He stopped shaking as much and Menori released his mouth since he was calming down. The most recent memories were the most vivid and he remembered watching the lizard swim towards Luna.

He tried thinking hard but just trying hurt his head. Shingo looked behind him and ran out to the living room, "Guys!" He shouted off the ledge at the two boys working on their dinner.

Bell stopped fixing the rack for all the dried fish and Kaoru stopped cleaning the one he just caught and they looked up. "Is he awake?" Bell asked and the little boy nodded at them.

Both sighed a deep breath of relief and Kaoru felt a weight lifted off his shoulders. _If I had jumped sooner, Howard wouldn't have had to..._ He stopped his thought because it didn't happen and he didn't need to think about what ifs.

Chako was resting in the other room after watching him for hours straight, but Shingo decided to go wake her up too.

"After Luna jumped in," Howard started and the three girls in front of him turned his way. They were alone in the girls' room and Howard stared at them, "what happened?" He still didn't remember how he got so badly injured but from the feel of it, and it felt really painful, the wounds were deep.

"You don't remember?" Sharla asked. Menori started feeling around his head to see if there was a larger bump somewhere she missed. The black haired girl stared him in the eyes to see if he had a concussion, but he just seemed to be a little forgetful. Sharla continued softly, "The lizard was about to get Luna, and you..."

"You jumped in between them and stabbed it," Menori cut in. She was still staring at him harshly, but let up a little and a small smile tugged at her lips. Howard seemed just as surprised as the others were when they saw him do it.

"I did?" He asked with wide-eyes.

"Yes," Luna wiped her face with an arm and she walked over and hugged the boy lying on her bed. "You saved me," his mouth was open wide and he stared straight ahead in shock. The girl talking to him didn't notice, but his eyes were getting watery. "I don't know if I would have made it to the spear in time if you hadn't," before she could finish her sentence she heard the gasps from the girls behind her and backed up a little, turning to them.

Both Sharla and Menori were gawking at Howard on the bed and Luna snapped back to him and dropped her jaw too. He was smiling wide and he had tears flowing from both eyes.

 _Did you see me papa? I saved her, I really saved her,_ he looked back down and although he was crying because he knew his father could really be proud of him now, he was happy for a different reason. He remembered why he jumped now. He was so afraid, afraid of what they'd do if Luna wasn't there anymore, what _he'd_ do. But now he didn't have to worry about that, because she was still there. "I'm so glad you're not hurt," he whispered and closed his eyes again.

The pain took over and he winced and passed back out. No one ran over to slow down his fall and he bounced on the bed before snoring loudly and knocking the three others out of the trance they were in.

"He's?"

"Glad Luna's?"

"Not hurt?" Luna finished the sentence that Sharla started and Menori continued. It was too confusing for them to think about right now, but they all went back to staring at the boy as the robo-cat and other boys walked into the room.

"I thought you said he was awake?!" Chako yelled at Shingo who held up his arms and swore that he really was.

Kaoru could tell something had happened from the way the three girls had their mouths slightly agape and were all staring at the blonde kid on the bed.

Luna continued to stare at the boy who saved her life and her open mouth shut and turned into a smile. The biggest smile she ever smiled formed on her face and she felt all warm inside knowing that he risked his life for her. _Sleep tight Howard._

 **A/N So it's been a while since I last updated this. Sorry. See, the plot of this story is what changed with Howard after his father died. And, well, my own dad got murdered since the last time I updated this. The next seven chapters were all written before it though, so rereading it felt kind of weird. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Leave a review telling me what you thought as Howard's change starts becoming noticeable.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Uninhabited Planet Survive.**

 **Chapter 4:**

"No really," Luna exclaimed, "I heard a voice in the lake."

"I believe you Luna," Sharla said and Bell nodded as well. The others were a little more skeptical but they didn't doubt that Luna heard it, only whether or not it was real. She wouldn't have lied to them about something like that.

"What'd it say?" Shingo asked the older girl.

Luna looked back over the lake and the others followed her gaze to the east. "It said to come to the Eastern Woods."

The group started talking about what could be down there, but they came to the ultimate decision to go check it out. Howard was sitting on a log across the table from Luna and it had been a couple of days since his injury. Against the pleas of his companions, he wouldn't stay in bed another day and got back to work finding food.

It seemed odd to all of them that he'd give up the chance to take days off since he was always trying to find excuses. But recently it was getting less surprising and they were only a little surprised when he spoke up this time saying, "I guess I'll go check out the Eastern Woods, we haven't been there yet." He had a smug look on his face and Bell held up his hand, offering to go as well.

"Thanks you guys," Luna smiled at them and the two nodded at her. She wanted to find the source of this voice and Bell wanted to help. Howard didn't know about the voice, but he did know that the Eastern woods hadn't been explored yet so he could be the first to find some cool things.

She explained to them that when the voice told her to come, it showed her a path down the river so first they had to cross the lake. While the others who weren't going on the trip went back to their normal activities, Luna and Bell worked on making a raft out of bamboo.

"Howard why don't you help us?" Luna called over as she saw the blond boy walking towards the woods.

"I've got something else to do," he replied with a wave of his hand in her direction. She frowned but Bell distracted her by asking if she could hold a stick while he lashed it together to the raft.

After an hour, the small raft was finished and Luna and Bell wiped the sweat off their brows. It was hard work but it paid off in the end.

"Looks like you guys are all done," Howard's smug voice sounded from behind them.

The fact that he showed up right after they were finished upset even Bell who was usually lenient with Howard. They both turned ready to yell at him and then stared.

"You like?" He smirked and held out the bow in front of him. It was curved with a taut string and he had fashioned a quiver that was slung over his right shoulder. "Now we don't have to worry about any lizards attacking us!" He pointed the bow over at a can sitting on the table a little away from them and nocked an arrow.

The other two watched in amazement and then started giggling. They couldn't hold it in so they started laughing out loud. The arrow Howard fired looked on target, for a few seconds. Then it dropped out of the air only about halfway the distance to the can and stuck in the ground.

Bell walked over and pulled the arrow out of the floor. "At least the arrows are sharp," he said trying to make Howard feel better about the bow he made.

The blond boy snatched the arrow from him and muttered, "Ch, whatever," he put the arrow back in the quiver and they walked over to put the boat in the water. _I should have checked how far it could shoot before I tried showing off_ , the kid was frowning, still embarrassed but when they got the raft in the water they all seemed to forget about it.

They worked on paddling across the lake together and with all three of them paddling, they were across in no time. They slowed down a little when they hit the river on the other side of the lake and Bell was the least tired so he kept paddling while the other two took a break. The three of them only had one paddle between them so Howard and Luna dropped the sticks they were using to help propel their raft.

Bell was slowly moving them along when Howard saw a snake resting on a log above the river. It looked dangerous and the boy reached for his bow, "With this I'll..."

Luna grabbed his arm and whispered, "Shh." The snake didn't see them and they floated right under it without having to get in a fight. "That's a relief," she said and they both looked back forward at the long winding stream.

After a few minutes more of travel, Howard felt a bump and looked to the side, seeing the sides of the river moving past him quicker. "Oi Bell, there's no need to speed up so much."

Luna and Bell looked at him and then noticed that they were moving faster too. The tan-skinned larger boy wasn't paddling any faster and he stopped altogether but the raft only sped up more.

"Does the river seem like it's getting a little choppy?" Luna wondered nervously as little white caps were appearing around them with the fast-moving current.

"Uhh, guys," Howard looked down the stream and his eyes grew wide. The rocks were getting larger and sticking out of the river in front of them, but that wasn't what he was staring at. It was the sudden drop in the river where he couldn't see any cliffs, trees, or water after it. "Paddle back!"

The other two grabbed what they could and started rowing as hard as they could to get themselves back up the river. Howard shoved his stick in the water at the wrong time as it unluckily hit a rock beneath the surface. The shocked look hit his face at the same time as the raft lifted up. The force of the jolt knocked the stunned blond boy up in the air and he stared down as the raft broke apart and both Luna and Bell fell into the water.

He splashed down a second later and surfaced next to the others. "It's a waterfall!" Luna shouted. They started swimming for the closest rock and Howard was the first one there. He wrapped his arms around it and grabbed on tight.

"Come on!" He called over and Bell was the next to reach the rock, wrapping an arm around it and looking back at Luna. The girl wasn't swimming towards them though, her bag had fallen into the water and she reached out for it, getting swept away from them a little.

Bell stepped into action quickly, reaching out on the other side of the rock, and grabbing Luna's hand with his own. He was barely holding on to the rock and she was losing her grip on his wet hand.

The leader had her father's bag back in one hand and tried to pull herself and it back up to Bell with her other. As her hand slipped out of his, the bigger boy lost his grip on the rock and they both dropped into the river.

The waterfall was getting closer and Luna heard screaming behind her. She didn't know where Bell was but she looked back and saw Howard climb up on the rock they were on. _At least one of us made it,_ she thought through the panic of getting swept away by the current.

"Bell, Luna!" He shouted. Howard didn't know what to do. They were getting further from him every second and he had no time. _What do I do?! What do I..._ He froze. The old him would have watched his friends fall of the cliff, then climbed down to see if they were okay. _But what if they aren't?_

Luna's head went under the river and the panic set in again. She pushed herself to the surface and took a deep breath of air since she knew she was about to get pulled back down. When her eyes opened though, she stared in horror as the rock behind her where Howard should have been didn't have anyone standing on it anymore.

The girl felt herself get pulled down and this time it was off the cliff and into the raging waterfall. She dropped the bag she was desperately clinging on to and she fell through the water trying not to scream.

She had no idea how far she'd fallen so far, but suddenly she felt an arm grabbing hers. Another wrapped around her and then she felt someone's chest on hers, completely wrapped around her front as they fell. Luna opened her eyes and almost released the deep breath she took when she saw Howard holding her tight and turning them in midair. _What is he-_ her thoughts were cut short as they hit the water and she let go of her breath.

The blond boy slammed back-first into the surface, turning in midair to protect the girl with him. The jolt hurt, but he clenched his teeth in pain since releasing his air would mean death. Unfortunately the girl above him who he was trying to help breathed out underwater and was sinking now. "Luna!" He shouted underwater, and then cursed that he made the same mistake as her and closed his mouth fast.

He'd lost a lot of air, but if he stopped now and swam up, Luna could drown. The child reached down and kicked to propel himself towards their sinking leader who he finally reached. The boy extended his arms and grabbed her by the armpits. She had her eyes closed and he was puffing out his cheeks since he desperately needed air, but he started pulling them up.

There was a loud splash above his head and Howard looked up to see Bell swimming down towards him. He smiled wide even under the panic he was in because the surface was so close. Bell looked at him and tried reaching for Luna, but Howard shot his eyes down and the tan-skinned boy saw where he was looking and nodded in understanding.

Howard finally got out of the water and pulled Luna to shore. He dropped her down on the beach and put two fingers to her neck. She wasn't breathing and Howard panicked for a split second, but then the image of his dad bleeding out in the rain appeared in his mind. He was right there and couldn't do anything to stop it. _Never again,_ the boy thought. He remembered watching all the movies and tv shows where people had to use CPR. Keeping them in mind, he started pushing both hands down on her chest.

Bell finally resurfaced and saw what Howard was doing, the pale-skinned boy's expression showing pure determination. The larger boy was afraid and he crawled out of the water and towards them in fear. _Luna, don't die,_ he thought and then looked up at Howard's face.

"Come on, come on," Howard kept pushing down on her chest over and over again. He had a deep frown on his face and he looked angry. "What are you doing?!" Howard yelled at her. He stopped the chest compressions and bent his head over her face, pressing his lips on hers and breathing air into her lugs.

Bell was stunned that Howard didn't even hesitate when he had to kiss Luna to give her air. It was so unlike the blond boy who he knew better than anyone. He was the one who made Bell carry all his stuff, holding his father's name and money over his head all the time. This wasn't that kid he thought he knew.

"Get up Luna," Howard looked even angrier now and he was pushing down on her chest harder. Bell was staring to lose hope; she wasn't moving or responding to anything Howard did.

The large boy held out an arm and had tears in his eyes. He rested a hand on Howard's shoulder and the blond boy acknowledged his presence on shore for the first time since he climbed out of the water with Luna's backpack. Howard could see that Bell had given up and he slapped the hand away. "It's not over," he growled in such a menacing tone that Bell fell backwards and stared in shock as Howard took a huge breath and then connected his face with Luna's again.

The girl's eyes flew open and she was in complete shock. Her first sight was of Howard's face pressed really close to hers, but she wasn't focused on that. She was in the middle of a dream where her mother and father were in a bright light. Right before her eyes opened they started walking away and fading out of her life. It was a nightmare.

Her body was turned to the side and she coughed up buckets of water onto the sand. The boys staring at her were shocked at how much was in there as she kept throwing up river water.

"Luna!" Bell shouted and ran over, patting her on the back and helping get the water out. She was sputtering and had tears in her eyes as she kept puking but Bell looked back and saw Howard staring at her in silence.

The blond boy was looking down and had his wet hair shadowing his eyes. "Don't ever," he started in a furious tone and the coughing girl heard him right behind her, "do that again."

He got off his knees and met Bell's gaze. 'Not a word,' Howard mouthed to Bell. The larger boy didn't know what Howard meant by that, but the skinny boy turned around and walked away without another word. "Howard? Howard!" He called after him.

"B-Bell," Luna coughed and turned her head. She didn't know how long she was out for but her chest hurt and she felt so sick. "What, happened?" Her voice was shaky and suddenly Bell understood what Howard meant. She didn't know what Howard was so upset about, but it sounded like she did something wrong.

 _He doesn't want Luna to know? He should be rubbing this in everyone's face, in my face. I gave up, and he kept going. Is it because he had to give her mouth to mouth?_ Luna asked him again and the tan boy smiled down at her. "It's okay, you're alright and that's what matters," he lifted up her backpack in his other hand and a smile broke out over her face, and then she passed out again. "Sleep well," the boy muttered to her and lifted up her head for a second before resting her head down on the bag. The larger boy let go of her, then looked over his shoulder; he needed to go have a chat with Howard.

Howard was standing a few dozen yards away from the shore of the stream they came out of. It led away from the waterfall and into the huge forest they were now in, but his mind was elsewhere. "She could have died!" He punched a fist into the bark in front of him. "If I didn't wait those few seconds on top of the rock!" He punched his other fist as he pulled back the first bloody one. "Ahh!"

He was so angry. The thought of losing someone else right in front of his eyes was too much and he was so angry. It wasn't Luna's fault; he knew that, but she terrified him.

"Howard," Bell spoke behind the kid whose hands were red and dripping at his sides. The larger kid was usually very calm and quiet, and he didn't have many conversations with Howard that didn't result in the blond boy yelling at him, but he had to ask. "Why don't you want Luna to know you saved her?"

The child was beating himself up over what 'could have' happened. He turned towards Bell and laughed at him, "As long as we both know I'm the greatest, then there's no reason to tell Luna. But the rest of them," He thought about telling everyone else, but then word would get to Luna from one of the loose-lipped students and he didn't want her knowing. "Scratch that, don't tell anyone," he smirked at Bell, "you'll just have to keep how awesome I am to yourself."

Howard's boasting was at least a little normal and Bell forgot about his crazy theory that someone took over his body and was impersonating him. Still, it was clear Howard was keeping something from him and he didn't know why his arrogant, smug, self-centered classmate was acting so, so humble. "Let's go back to the river," Bell knew he wasn't going to get any answers out of the other boy, but at least he could stop him from bloodying his knuckles any further.

Howard nodded and they walked back to shore together. The two of them took off their shirts and laid them out over rocks so they could dry while Luna was sleeping. The blond child stared at Bell without his shirt on for a few seconds and then realized he was getting jealous and turned away. His eyes moved to his own arms and he frowned at how small they were in comparison. _I bet Kaoru's stronger than me too,_ he thought angrily. He couldn't stop Luna from getting hurt, he'd only been a bother to everyone since they arrived on the island.

Even as he ran his fingers over the three long scabs on his face, he didn't feel like he'd been of any use. This trip was supposed to show the others, and himself, that he was an important member of their group. But so far, all he managed to do was watch as Luna drifted towards the waterfall. _And save her life,_ he tried reminding himself, but he was in too sour a mood for that to work.

Bell was sitting next to Luna, but it was interesting to watch Howard pace back and forth next to the water. The blond child had a mixed expression of relief, guilt, and anger on his face and it made him look almost funny.

It was a long time before Luna started mumbling and both boys looked over at her. She lifted her head and rubbed her eyes as she opened them. Bell was sitting up in front of her with a wide smile, "Luna," he said in relief and stood up, helping her to her feet as well.

The orange haired girl smiled at Bell as she picked up her backpack and then turned to Howard. She marched towards him with a frown on her face and the thin boy took a step back but was too late. Luna slapped him across the left cheek and Bell and Howard both dropped their jaws. "What were you thinking?!" She yelled at him.

"Luna!" Bell called out. The girl didn't know how hard Howard tried and finally succeeded at resuscitating her, but if she did Bell knew she wouldn't be this angry at whatever she was mad about.

Howard flashed Bell a warning glance since he didn't know what Luna was talking about. He looked back at her with a confused look. _She couldn't mean the CPR could she?_ His cheeks went a little red. _How would she know, she was so disoriented?_

"Jumping into the waterfall?!" She exclaimed and Howard smiled as he realized what she was talking about. "You think it's funny?" she had a scared expression on her face and Howard stopped smiling. "Don't do that," she whispered and then hugged the boy in front of her, whispering quieter in his ear, "don't ever do that again."

 _First with the lizard, now here. Howard's saved me twice now, I have to thank him somehow._ The girl backed away from the hug and could see the fading blush as Howard forced it away.

He cleared his own throat and then laughed at her. "I wouldn't have had to jump in if you weren't reaching for that stupid backpack." Luna's eyes went wide and she held her backpack close. It was her most treasured possession, and he was making fun of it. "Risking your life for it, ha! Bell should have just let it sink," he turned away as the girl started yelling at him about how rude and mean he was being.

Bell however, was just staring at Howard in complete confusion. He hadn't even thought about getting the backpack, but before Howard went up to take his breath, the boy motioned down towards it so he figured he could at least help in one way. Whatever was going through Howard's head, Bell knew one thing for sure. He was lying to them.

The group started walking after a few more minutes and Bell was in the middle of the group. Luna was still angry about her dad's backpack being called stupid and she wouldn't look back at Howard. That was fine with him though, he was too busy looking around them to worry about the girl in front of their three person group.

There were huge insects on the huge tree trunks around them. Large beetles, grasshoppers, things that made their skin crawl, and they were everywhere, and they were all much bigger than they should be.

Luna looked between the trees and could swear she saw something move. She walked closer to the brush and pushed two large leaves away and looked between. Her eyes met with an enormous pig's, and it didn't look happy to see her.

Howard and Bell each stumbled backwards and Luna turned and started sprinting. They each turned and ran with her as the trees behind them shook. The three children all shouted at the same time as the monster pushed through the trees, "BOAR!"

 **A/N Whoa Howard! Two chapters in a row of saving Luna, though he still somehow sounds like a jerk doing so XD.** **The others are starting to catch on to Howard's changes, but how long will it be before they really find out what's going on with him.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

"Turn left!"

Bell and Howard followed Luna without question. She said the voice was telling her where to go, and so far it had kept them safe so they weren't going to stop listening now. Especially when a humongous boar was chasing them through the forest, trampling everything around them.

"Between the trees!" The girl with short orange hair slid between the huge trees right next to each other. Bell and Howard followed her through. A loud thud came from behind them and they looked back, panting with their hands on their knees.

The boar had its snout stuck in between the trees and couldn't move no matter how hard it pulled back. It ran straight into it full speed and was growling at them as the kids smiled. "Take that you big pork chop," Howard laughed at it and then kept panting. That was too long of a run to keep up, but they couldn't take a break there in case the giant piggy got out.

"Let's go," Bell suggested. He was the least winded of the three, but the other two nodded. They kept walking through the trees and Luna directed them around in the direction the voice told her.

"Which way now?" Howard asked as they came to a split in the woods. He had his bow in his hand despite the fact that he shot all his arrows at the boar when it was chasing them. Only one of the shots came close to hitting its mark and he was furious at himself for having such bad aim.

The arrows he shot in this forest flew a lot faster and farther than the one he shot back near Everyone's House too. He thought it probably had to do with the weird way in which the gravity around here was lessened somehow. When they were jumping off a cliff, per the instructions of the weird voice, they didn't fall as fast as they should have.

The child put the bow with the quiver over his shoulder and followed Luna to the path she chose on the left. It was almost dark now an the left trail took them right in front of an opening in a rock wall. "Let's rest here for the night," Luna suggested.

The overhang gave some good cover so if it started raining during the night they'd be safe under there. The three of them sat down and Howard caught his breath while looking at the other two. Neither of them were panting nearly as hard and he frowned. "First giant bugs then a giant boar, what's next?"

"And not only that, I felt my body falling slower off of that cliff," the girl commented.

Bell nodded, "I felt the same way."

"What's wrong with this forest?!" The blond child put his hands through his hair anxiously and sighed. He remembered quiver was empty and he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Luna asked as he started walking out of their small cave.

He frowned and pointed at his quiver, "I need some more arrows."

"Here I'll help," Bell said and started getting up.

"I don't need your help," Howard shouted back at the tanner boy.

The leader of their group frowned at Howard, "Don't talk like that," she scolded.

"In your hearts, I know you both think I'm a coward," the boy continued as he looked away from them. "Just a coward who can't even shoot a bow right."

"Huh?" Bell didn't know what one had to do with the other. Sure, Howard missed his shots, but he didn't think it was due to fear, he just didn't have very good aim.

"That's not," Luna started but Howard wasn't listening. The child walked out of the cave and went out to look for sticks he could make into arrows. He was gone for a long time while the other two set up camp.

An hour after Howard was gone, Bell sat in the cave with a deep frown on his face. He was confused by Howard's actions the last few days and Luna could see he was thinking intensely about something.

"It's fine Bell, I'm sure he didn't mean it," Luna was referring to when Howard said he didn't need Bell's help, but the other boy wasn't worried about that. He shook his head to show Luna that wasn't what was on his mind. "What's wrong?" She questioned, now confused by Bell's expression.

The boy looked out of the cave in the direction Howard walked out earlier. Yeah, the blonde boy said to keep it to themselves, but he didn't have to go into detail. He gulped just imagining how Luna would react if he told her Howard gave her mouth to mouth treatment. She was staring at him expectantly though and he didn't like lying so he started to whisper.

"Howard saved your life earlier," Bell remarked in an amazed voice since he still found trouble believing it.

"I know," she responded in just as quiet a tone with a smile on her face. _He jumped in after me and fell off the waterfall. That's twice now I owe him-_

Bell shook his head, "I don't think you do." Now Luna was really confused and Bell continued with his head resting back on the wall, "When he pulled you out of the water... you weren't breathing." She gasped and he kept going, "I thought you were dead," he was still ashamed of himself for that and looked down, speaking quiter, "you _were_ dead." The girl's eyes widened even further in shock, but Bell continued, "I'd lost hope, but Howard didn't give up on you. He, brought you back to life."

Bell felt as long as he kept it vague and didn't mention the backpack either, Howard wouldn't get too mad about it. The girl he just told all this to though, was taking it all quietly and he was glad she knew. "Alright, I'm going to sleep. Goodnight Luna," Bell said and she said 'night' before he passed out.

The girl stood up a few minutes after he passed out in front of her. Luna walked away from the stone overhang where they made camp and walked across to a large rock sticking out of the ground. She sat down on the edge of it and stared up at the full moon. _This island is so strange. What's with that voice?_ Her eyes drifted down and she looked at the forest down below her, _Maybe deep in this forest, there'll be an answer!_

"Luna?"

The girl jumped in surprise and almost fell off of the rock she was sitting on. She spun around and glared at the child who thought sneaking up on her was a good idea. "What is it?" Halfway through her question, she remembered exactly what Bell had told her and her expression softened at the sight of Howard's face behind her.

He brought back some bamboo sticks to make more arrows, but was surprised someone was still awake when he arrived since it was past dark already. "Howard," she greeted in a soft voice. There were so many thoughts racing through her head, but the main one was why? Why didn't he tell her about it? Why wasn't he boasting about how he saved her? She didn't ask why though, she said the only two words that mattered, "Thank you."

He stared at her for a few seconds. The boy was determining whether to laugh and make fun of her for falling in the first place, saying you're welcome, or... "Please," he started in a grim voice and turned back away from her. He didn't want her to see his eyes, how much pain went through them every time he imagined her dead. Her eyes widened as she recalled hearing this right after she woke up from falling into the waterfall. "Just, don't do anything like that again."

He took a step but Luna wasn't going to just let him run off again. She stood and grabbed him by the arm, "Stop Howard," she said sternly. The boy didn't move but he didn't turn around either.

Right when Howard left, Bell started a fire and the flickering firelight was licking at the side of Howard's face. His head turned a little to the left and his left eye met with the gaze of the girl behind him. She stared into his eye, and Luna's mouth lowered at what she saw.

Her grip on his arm faded and he tugged it from her, turning his face away. She stared after him as he walked into the small cave and lay down on the other side of Bell. _Howard, what happened to you?_ When she looked at his eyes she didn't see the anger she expected after he scolded her so harshly. Instead she saw something she didn't understand, fear.

Howard lay in the cave facing the wall. His eyes were closed but he wasn't asleep. The image of Luna lying on the ground, not breathing, was fresh in his mind and he couldn't stop thinking about it. _Luna why do you always have to be so reckless?!_ He sighed, as that was just the type of person Luna was. _And I wouldn't like her any other way._

Howard's eyes went wide at the thought he just had and at the same time he felt footsteps approaching him. The night-time air was chilly and Howard and Bell were each lying close to the small fire at the edge of the shallow cave. The blond boy was on one side and Bell was on the other but the girl who walked in the cave walked closer to Howard.

Luna looked down and neither of the boys were awake. She didn't know what to make of what she saw in Howard's eyes, but she did what felt right. He was scared of something and she bent down, resting a hand on his shoulder.

The boy was trying hard to keep his breathing calm and not let Luna know he was still awake. He didn't know why he didn't just snap at her to stop. For some reason, the stress and fear he was feeling started to subside and his breathing slowed down even more. Before he realized what was happening, he fell asleep and didn't feel Luna's arms wrapping around his back and resting on his chest.

Luna smiled as she lay down behind him and whispered into his ear, "Really Howard, thank you."

 **A/N Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in a while after saying I was going to publish more of this story. Anyway, I have four or five more chapters that I have on standby for this, and since it doesn't take long to edit these small chapters, I should be able to post them pretty rapidly. I hope you liked the chapter, as Bell, Howard, and Luna continue making their way through the woods trying to find the source of the voice in Luna's head. Hope you enjoyed, and 'till next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

"What is that thing?!" Howard fell backwards and yelled as an enormous crab emerged from the water in front of them.

They were at an ancient ruin overgrown with vines and trees, completely surrounded by water in a small moat, but when they approached it the giant crustacean appeared out of the small water pool. Bell and Howard were backing up, but Luna fell to her knees when she tried to move. "Luna!" Bell shouted and reached down, helping her up to her feet.

The orange haired girl was grabbing her head in pain. The voice had been getting louder and louder and she finally thought they were there when the ruins came into sight. As soon as she got close to them though, her head started to hurt and when she closed her eyes she saw three figures in front of her in her mind. Two were tall and the one in the middle was short, almost like a child. The weird thing about them though, was that their skin was bluish gray and they didn't look human.

"Luna come on!" Bell urged her but the girl wasn't paying attention to him.

Howard was farthest in front after falling, but he finally pushed himself back on his feet. He lifted his bow and knocked an arrow from his quiver.

The farther they'd gone into the jungle, the weirder everything got. They realized when they were jumping around that the gravity was a lot less over here as they got a lot more air and landed softer. Also, Howard's arrows had been shooting faster so the boy thought it might work. He was about to release the arrow when Luna jumped towards him, "Don't provoke it!"

It was too late and the blond child fired. The kids all looked up and watched as the sharp stick bounced off the giant crab's hard shell. He shot again and again, but none of his makeshift bamboo arrows were doing any damage. "Everyone get away!" Luna shouted as the crab rose one of its claws.

The group started running but the crab smashed its claw into the ground and Howard had to dive to the left to avoid it. He rolled and looked up to see the giant monster looking down at him.

"Howard! Don't get separated from us!" Bell shouted.

"Howard! This way!" Luna yelled at the same time.

The skinny boy wasn't looking at them however, his eyes were glued to the monster's above him. "Ahhhhhh!" he yelled in fear. He turned and started sprinting away with his bow in one hand. The crab was chasing him just as fast and it slammed its claws into the ground over and over again. Howard jumped and dodged to avoid each of the attacks and he was really freaking out.

"Save me!" He yelled as a giant claw three times the size of his body hit the ground right next to him. Bell and Luna were running on the other side of the crab and yelling for Howard to get away but he was trying and failing. "Stay away!" The boy yelled. The crab slammed another claw only closer this time. "Pa-" his eyes widened. He never finished shouting 'Papa' and his feet froze on the ground. At the same time, the crustacean's claw slammed down over him and Luna and Bell watched as he was crushed.

The two children outside gasped as the crab's claw was sticking out of the ground where Howard was just standing. Luna fell to her knees with a hand over her mouth and Bell couldn't think, his eyes were as large as saucers.

Little did they know that the crab's claw had a small space between the top half and bottom, and Howard was standing in that area right now. It had gotten the halves of its claws stuck in the dirt so they couldn't close completely around him. The fact that he was in a small dark space with a giant murderous crab over him wasn't on his mind though. He'd almost said something stupid. He almost shouted, 'Papa,' but Papa was gone. There was no need to call out for his help, because no matter how much he wished for it, he wasn't coming.

Howard reached a hand out of the space and grabbed the outside of the claw. The space was smaller than he thought and he had to squeeze to get his body out of the crack. "Oof," he said as he finally snapped himself free. His eyes doubled in size as he saw his comrades in front of him.

Bell had the widest smile on his face when he saw Howard come out of the crack, but Luna, Luna still had tears dripping down her cheeks as a look of shock appeared on her face. The shock faded and a huge smile broke on her face before she gasped again. Luna could see the yellow orb of the crab's eye turn down and stare at the boy that climbed out of its claws.

Howard glared up and then snapped his body forward out of the small space completely right as the crab crushed its claw together again. This time had Howard been inside, he definitely would have been squished. The boy realized this and fear flooded through him once more, but this time he knew no one was coming to save him.

The kid jumped straight up and lifted high up because of the low gravity. He rose until he was eye level with the crab and his friends were screaming at him to stop. Their yells got caught in their throats as they watched Howard rip an arrow out of his quiver and pull the string all the way back to his ear. His hands were gripping the bow so tight he thought it was going to snap, but it held just long enough for him to fire and for the fast-moving arrow to go straight into the crustacean's eye.

It wasn't a very far distance, or an amazing shot, but the arrow flew so fast that it smashed straight through the crab's eye and the yellow orb exploded. Howard fell back and botched the landing, falling on his butt because he was too busy staring at the crab. It screamed. If a crab could scream, that's what it was doing, and the loud screech made all three of them cover their ears.

It ripped its claw out of the ground and it's other eye focused on Howard, looking a lot angrier now. There was no way he was going to make the same shot again so he got up and started running. "Howard!" Luna realized the danger wasn't over yet, and she and Bell started shouting to their scared friend again.

The blond boy ran up to a cliff and tried pulling himself into a small space behind a tree trunk. He was stuck between the tree and the cliff and thought he could catch his breath but the crab had other plans. It wrapped its claw around the tree and ripped it out of the ground with a screaming Howard still holding it.

The crab was off-balance because of its eye and accidentally slammed the base of the tree into the cliff. The jolt sent Howard flying through the air and Bell watched as the kid flew their way. "Howard!" He jumped up a second before Luna could and caught the smaller student who slammed into his chest.

The boy was disoriented, but he knew Bell had caught him. As they descended they looked back over to the crab that bumped into the wall and was now turning, but then luck favored them. The tree Howard chose to hide on was holding up a huge rock at the top of the cliff and when it was removed, the rock could fall from the lightest touch. Without an eye, the crab bumped into the wall hard and the rock dislodged.

The crab barely had a second to look up before the rock, more like a boulder, fell on top of it and crushed it completely. Its shell cracked and yellow goop splattered around it as it dropped the tree and everything became still.

All three children stared at the crushed crab for a few moments as if wondering if it was going to get back up. The first one to their senses was their orange haired leader. "Howard are you alright?" Luna ran over to the blond kid, but the boy was more than alright.

"I killed it?" His initial shock at defeating it went away fast. Howard jumped up and punched a fist in the air, "I beat it! I beat it!" The child turned around with a huge smile on his face, "You guys saw it right? I defeated it!"

"Y-Yes," Luna agreed hesitantly. _The crab dropped the boulder on itself, but Howard led it to the cliff in the first place, so it was kind of his kill... I guess._ They watched as Howard ran over and reached down. The blond student picked up the edge of the claw that broke off when the boulder fell on it.

"What are you doing?" Luna questioned.

"Are you going to use it as food?" Bell inquired.

"Nah, it's evidence that I beat this thing. If I just told people they wouldn't believe me right?" Howard thought about Menori and Shingo and how they'd call him a liar and he knew that Sharla would be thinking it too.

Luna and Bell shrugged to each other and Howard yelled to them, "Oi, the backpack!" The orange haired girl walked over with her backpack out and allowed Howard to put the claw in it. It just fit between the outside of the pack and the remaining water bottles they had.

While Howard was going on about how amazing he was, the group of three was making their way over to the ruins. Without the giant crab there it looked easy to get in.

They were wrong.

As they got close to the moat surrounding the ruins, the water started lifting up and bubbling. The water did the same thing right before the crab emerged and all three kids felt a sense of dread wash over them. Howard stopped talking and his jaw dropped as another huge crab flew out of the water and glared down at them angrily.

"Run!" Bell yelled and this time none of them hesitated. They were booking it as fast as their legs could take them back into the jungle.

Luna looked back as the ruins left her sight and she frowned. They were so close, but they didn't have the luxury to worry about that now. The reason she couldn't see the ruins anymore was because of the giant crab chasing after them. "Maybe it wants revenge for what happened to its friend?!" Luna called out as she jumped over a tree root.

Howard's face turned blue and he gulped. "Sorry!" He shouted back at it and then screamed as a claw slammed down on his side. The crab wasn't accepting his apology and they picked up the pace to get away faster.

The girl leading their small group clenched her eyes shut and tried to hear the voice. She didn't know which way to go, but when her eyes closed, she saw a small round chamber in a room. It sounded like there was static interference stopping her from hearing whoever was talking to her. "What? What did you say?!"

 _ **"...ur ch..."**_

"What? I don't understand!" Luna's blue eyes were huge and she was screaming at the voice in her head.

Howard was busy dodging the claws of the crab, but Bell turned his head while running and stared at the girl. She looked crazy, shouting up in the sky like that, "Are you alright?" He believed in the voice that got them so far, but he was still concerned for her.

The girl snapped out of it and turned around. She looked past Bell and Howard and at the huge crab scurrying towards them. They were moving only a little faster than it but it was keeping up with them. _What are we going to do?!_

Suddenly a voice shouted in Luna's head, _**'Watch out!'**_

"Watch out!" Luna repeated and she stopped short. A huge claw reached out of the bush in front of them and the girl pushed the others back a step right in the nick of time. The claw hit the ground where she was standing a second ago and once again the voice had saved her.

"This way!" Luna started running a new direction again and Bell chased right after her. Howard was still scared but he clenched his teeth and ran after the two of them, not wanting to be left behind with the murderous crab.

* * *

Meanwhile at Everyone's House, the children were all outside staring at the large elephant creature on their front lawn. It was shouting into the East and stamping its feet on the ground.

"Pague! What's wrong Pague?" Sharla asked over and over but the animal was spooked by something.

"What happened Sharla?" Menori asked while they both watched the distressed animal.

Pague started running around the coast of Fairy Lake and Sharla turned to the Student Council President. "I don't know. He ran off all of a sudden in a hurry!"

Pague smashed through their steel wall around the outside of their home and now Kaoru was with the girls watching it run away. He had his spear in his hand just in case the docile animal suddenly turned rabid, but that didn't seem to be the case.

The black haired boy looked off into the distance and saw the direction the elephant was going. _That's right towards Luna and the others._ "I'm going to check it out."

"Kaoru!" Menori shouted after him, but the boy was already sprinting full speed after the animal.

* * *

"Huff-huff-huff," the blond child panted at the backs of his classmates. He couldn't stop running or the crab would get him, but his lungs were all out of air and he was panting constantly. Each step felt like his last and he couldn't keep up with his friends any longer.

He was about to tell them how he was spent and couldn't run any more, but the words wouldn't come out. _Is this why Papa died? So I can give up here to an overgrown shellfish?!_ His breathing slowed and he pushed through the exhaustion despite the pain in his chest and legs.

Neither of the others looked back so they didn't see the determined look appear to replace Howard's terrified expression. Bell was looking through the trees and he saw something that made him point and shout, "Look! It's the waterfall!"

"Thank God!" Howard managed to say in a raspy voice.

"Hurry up Howard!" Luna looked back and saw their blonde friend was still a little behind them. The crab wasn't too close though and they should be able to make it if they hurried.

Luna and Bell made it to the rock wall next to the waterfall first and started climbing up the cracks and protruding rocks. Luna turned her head around and called over, "Run Howard!"

The blond boy smiled up at her and shouted, "Don't worry about it! I'll be-" before he could finish his sentence, the bushes behind him exploded and the crab burst out of the forest. It rose a claw above Howard's head and the boy crossed his arms for some sort of protection.

"Watch out!" Bell and Luna both shouted.

All of a sudden, a spear flew out of the air and the crab ducked its head just in time to avoid an obsidian point through the eye. The children looked up and saw Kaoru with his arm extended having just thrown the saving spear. Sharla was on his right and Pague was next to them as well.

"Kaoru!" Luna called up with a smile.

Bell was more in shock to see them and shouted, "Sharla?"

"Hurry up!" Kaoru tossed a vine down that he tied to a tree when he was planning on climbing down a minute ago. "We can pull you!"

The two on the wall let go and grabbed the rope and Howard sprinted over and grabbed the bottom of it too. Sharla watched them all get on then turned to the elephant, "Pague!"

The alien elephant beast understood and grabbed the vine with its mouth. Luna and Bell started running up the wall while the rope helped pull them, but further down, Howard's eyes were huge and staring straight at the crab running towards him. "Ah! Ahhh! Hurry and pull us up! Pap- Pague!" He was too scared to curse himself for almost calling for his Papa, just switching who he was yelling to help him instead.

Right as the crab slammed its claw forward, Pague yanked hard and Howard moved out of its reach.

"I think we're safe," Luna whispered.

"Haha, hahaha," Howard laughed as the color started coming back to his face. He was so relieved. The boy grinned down at the crab and yelled, "Serves you right! You scissor-handed freak!"

The kids got pulled up to the top of the cliff where they could finally catch their breath. They were all tired so Pague let them ride on his back all the way back to Everyone's House. When they got close they started waving at Menori and Shingo who were waiting for them back inside the walls of their home.

It was sunset by the time they got there, but they met up inside the treehouse for a meeting before having dinner.

"There were civilized people living here hundreds of years ago," Howard was excitedly telling everyone.

"Are you sure?" Menori asked.

"I can't say so for certain," Luna started, not wanting to get everyone's hopes up. "But it definitely wasn't natural."

Howard was more optimistic about going home, "There are people on this island!"

"I thought it was too old though," Bell commented.

Menori crossed her arms and listed the weird things, "Mysterious ruins in a forest where everything was gigantic. And you heard that voice from somewhere in there?"

Luna nodded, "I think so."

Shingo pumped his hands and smiled, "Let's go there then. We might be able to meet civilized people!"

"But there's such a large crab in the way," Sharla added and they all frowned thinking about how to get past it.

All of them, except for Howard. "Don't worry about that," he reached into Luna's pack and pulled out the claw of the crab he defeated. "I'll show that thing who's boss." He felt a slimy substance drip out of the claw and he dropped it, "Ew yuck."

The claw fell to the floor and more liquid oozed out of it. There was something shiny in the liquid and Chako reached down. "What is that?" She pushed away the goop and revealed a small robotic thing with red flashing lights coming out of it.

"It's a machine," Shingo exclaimed and looked closer.

"What does this mean?" Luna whispered. They were all confused but the blond boy next to her was glaring directly at the machine with anger in his eyes.

 _Was someone controlling the crab?! What if the people living here aren't our friends?_ He looked around at the confused and interested looks of his fellow students. None of them looked particularly worried, which meant that the responsibility to be careful and watch out for all of them, fell on him. _I have to protect everyone._ _I have to get stronger!_

 **A/N Hey everyone! So this chapter stayed pretty close to canon for the most part, but that will switch up in the next few chapters. Howard's change to being brave isn't happening instantly, as he still sometimes shows the cowardly kid he used to be. Yet he did manage a nice shot in there! Haha, hope you enjoyed and in a few chapters, things are going to start getting very, very dark. Those baddies are coming for the planet again, just like in the show, and let's see how Howard handles them. That's in the far future though... There are a few more chapters before then to build up some closer relationships with Howard and his friends! I hope you liked this one and give me a review down below if you did. XD 'Till next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

"Dinner is served!" Sharla shouted up at the treehouse where Shingo was working to figure out more about the robot that was in the crab's claw.

"I don't need any!" The younger boy's voice rang out. "Go on and eat without me!"

"Shingo's sure enthusiastic," Luna said and her and Sharla laughed. They knew why he was though. After seeing that crashed ship in the woods, they were all wondering if they'd ever get back to the colony. Any small clue they got was gladly accepted.

Howard stared over at the girls from his seat. They were going about business as if everything was fine, but he was on edge. If there were man-made robots in the crab he killed, then someone was attacking them.

He thought maybe he was overthinking it, but when Shingo came out of the treehouse he confirmed the older boy's fears. "Nano-plant?" Luna asked him.

"I've heard of them," Menori stated.

"To put it simply," Shingo started for the people who didn't understand. "They're computers so small you can't see them with the naked eye."

"But we can see it," Howard stated in a confused tone.

"You're quite the idiot," Chako teased and the blond boy growled at her. "There are a bunch of smaller computers put together to make a bigger one."

"It's an organic Integrated Circuit." Shingo gave it a name but Howard just grunted, still not getting it.

Sharla looked over at them, "So that means someone made that crab after all."

"Wrong," Chako said and then started explaining how people implanted the machines to control the crab.

 _Then I was right,_ Howard thought to himself while ignoring the conversation around him. They were talking about the possibility of other people on the planet but he knew there definitely were. _Whoever they are, we need to be ready for them if they try to attack us again._ He reached his hand up and brushed his fingers along his cheek. Each of the three claw marks across his face reminded him that he couldn't beat the lizard on his own. _I have to be stronger for next time._

"If you'll excuse me," Shingo stood up and walked around the table.

"Where are you going Shingo?" Luna questioned.

"If I use that machine, I might be able to fix the communications system." The boy sounded excited.

Howard perked up at this and got out of his seat. "Is that true?!" If they could get help they could escape the island without having to worry about other people on it.

"If we can transmit," Sharla began, "someone will come save us!"

"Which means we can go home!" Howard shouted and they all seemed happy. The blond boy's smile faded after a few seconds as he thought about his home. His dad was always working and mom had been dead for years. But now with his Papa gone, he couldn't even imagine what home would be like anymore. What he did know though was that they'd all be a lot safer off this planet than on it.

Chako started talking about how they didn't know if they could fix the machine for sure. It was complicated technology they were working with and it wasn't a sure thing that they'd be able to use it to fix the comms.

"Chako come help me!" Shingo called and the robot cat ran over to help.

The rest of the children were tired from the long day and went to bed ahead of the cat and younger boy. A couple hours after everyone fell asleep, Howard was still wide awake. He couldn't sleep so he restlessly walked out into the living room. "How is it Shingo? How many more minutes until it's fixed?"

"Just wait a little longer," Shingo assured.

"Leave it to us," Chako added, "just go to sleep!"

"Alright alright," the older boy turned around and walked to the stairs instead. "No need to be impatient. As long as it's done by tomorrow morning there's no problem."

"Shoo shoo, what a nuisance," Chako waved him off and since the boy was heading downstairs, it looked like Howard was going to the bathroom.

The boy walked out the front door of their house and walked over to the dinner table. He grabbed a cup and then walked over to the fence, resting the cup on top of it. _I only got one good hit, and that was from a few feet away. I need to get better,_ the boy walked over and grabbed his bow off the tree it was leaning on.

The two working on the communications device continued their work through the night relentlessly. Shingo tinkered with the device again, muttering to himself, "Maybe if this goes here..."

"No," Chako complained and wiped her tired eyes. They'd been working for hours now and it was getting tiresome. Shingo was still as energetic as ever though and she was trying to keep up.

 **Thud.**

"Maybe the power converter isn't charging correctly," the boy suggested and the robot cat sighed. They could check, but she doubted that was the problem.

 **Ding.**

Both of them looked at each other and then out the side of the living room. They definitely heard the sound of metal hitting metal and they walked over to the side and stared out at the yard. Their eyes went huge as they stared in front of them.

Howard pulled back the string on his bow again and let another arrow fly towards his target. **Thud.** It was his last one, and it wasn't nearly as close as the previous which hit the steel fence the cup was resting on top of.

Chako stared down in shock at the blond boy. It had been over an hour since he left to go to the bathroom so she thought maybe he came back in when they were too focused or something, or maybe he fell in the toilet, but nothing like this.

 _Damn, the arrows aren't flying far enough. Is it the bow?_ Howard looked at his bow as he walked over to collect his arrows and he shook his head. _No, the bow is great. I made it myself. It's me, I'm not, not strong enough. If I could pull the arrow back farther, it would fly faster and stay on target instead of wobbling in the air._

He dropped the bow and his quiver that he was putting the arrows back into and he started doing push ups. He didn't do many before his arms started hurting, but he didn't want to stop. All the exhaustion from running around all day was catching up to him as he tried to get a fifteenth push up.

Howard bent his elbows and then tried pushing himself back up, but his muscles weren't allowing it. "Go, GO!" His arms were shaking and his whole body trembled as his arms unbent and he completed the push up. "Yes," he whispered and then his hands moved from under him and he fell face-first into the dirt.

Chako and Shingo stared down off the side of the living room in silence for a few seconds. The two of them turned their heads and met each others' gazes. "I'll go get him," the young boy whispered, still confused by what he just saw.

Shingo walked down the steps and out the front door. He stared down at Howard's unconscious form and shook the blonde boy whose eyes slowly opened. "It's time to go to bed Howard," the boy wearing glasses said.

The older boy was too tired to make a snide comment and just mumbled as he got up and allowed Shingo to lead him back to the house. "Just make sure you fix the communications device," Howard muttered as the younger boy led him to his hammock in the boys' room. "We need it to get off this fucking island."

Shingo had never heard Howard curse before, but when he looked into the tired eyes of the older blonde child, he was scared by what he saw. Howard looked him in the eyes and stated, "This island is Hell."

With that the older boy fell back asleep, though he thought he was asleep the whole time. A nervous Shingo walked out of the boys' room and Chako was staring at him expectantly. "We have to get to work," the boy said and that was the end of the conversation. They needed to fix the comms over everything else and they started working.

Their work went through the night and Shingo stayed there to work through sunrise even when Chako went to sleep.

After daybreak, most of the children were sitting around the living room talking in hushed voices. "You walked a very complicated path," Sharla whispered as she stared at the map Luna drew out for them.

"It's because we were led by the voice," the leader replied.

Kaoru pointed down at a rectangle drawing on the paper and asked, "So the crab was near these ruins?"

As the group was talking, one more student was waking up. Howard stretched and walked into the other room. He didn't remember going to sleep last night, but he must have if he got in his bed. He walked over to the group and heard Luna finish off a conversation, "We'll go take another look. Ok, let's get ready."

"Eh? Is it fixed already?" He asked the orange haired girl as he heard her entusiastic voice.

"Shh," she said with a finger in front of her mouth. He was talking too loud and she pointed to the reason they were whispering. Howard turned his head and frowned when he saw Shingo sleeping with his head down on the table. "You'll wake Shingo," she warned him quietly, but he ignored her and walked straight up to him.

"What's up with him? He promised he'd have it finished by morning!" Howard was talking louder with every word and Luna told him to stop. She explained that he was working through the night, but Howard was pissed. He didn't know why she was siding with him when he was sleeping on the job like this, "What are you saying?!"

"Sorry Shingo," Luna apologized and they turned to see the small boy rubbing his eyes under his glasses.

He looked up and then back down at the communications device. "Chako let's get started." Shingo stared at the equipment and got to work fixing it right away.

"Hmm," Howard glared down at him and then turned around. "I guess I'll let it slide that it's not finished yet, but in exchange you have to work on it all morning." The blonde boy in the long sleeved shirt walked away and frowned, _Get us out of here Shingo, you said you could do it._

The kids all got to work on their daily activities while Shingo went back to work on the comms.

After a few hours of planning, they finally had an idea and tried it out. Shingo twisted a knob and had Chako exert all her power at the same time to try and get it started, but the robot didn't have enough juice and Chako collapsed.

"I'm spent, let's take a break," the cat muttered.

"It's no use," Shingo muttered and stared down in defeat.

"What are you doing?" A low voice said from behind the two of them. Chako and Shingo spun around to see Howard standing at the top of the steps, glaring at them. "You're giving up?"

"No! That's not it!" Shingo said getting out of his seat. "We don't have enough parts and the amount of energy we need is difficult to obtain."

"You said you could fix it!" Howard yelled and they were both progressively getting louder.

"I can fix it!" Shingo retorted. "I just need more time!"

"How long is it going to take!" Howard shouted.

"Like I said I'm working on it now," the boy replied with a shake of his fist.

"It ain't so easy to fix!" The pink robot cat added.

"So you lied?" Howard accused them. He thought maybe he wouldn't have to worry about giant crabs and ancient ruins. Maybe they could call for help and get off the island, but it was all a lie. "We were looking forward to it so badly. Don't get our hopes up just because you want to pretend like you can fix it when you really can't."

"I didn't lie!"

"I shouldn't have expected any more from a brat like you. Skip two grades and you'd think he'd be smarter," Howard taunted.

"Shut up!"

"Then don't tell us we can go home when we can't!"

"I never said that!"

"Liar," Howard called him out and the boy was shaking in rage. Just then Luna and Sharla walked in, but Shingo was angry and stormed off.

"What was that all about?" Luna asked and Chako pointed at Howard. The girls glared at him and he just crossed his arms and turned away.

 _Sure, side with the brat who pretended he knew what he was doing._ Howard growled and sat down, _Maybe it's a good thing. The next ship that comes to get us could get struck by lightning too. It would probably be better if they just left us here. No! Papa came all the way here to get us home, we have to escape to the colony or it would have been in vain._

The boy sitting on the log-seat next to the communications device was staring straight at it while he thought. At first, Luna was planning on scolding him for hurting Shingo's feeling, but now her, Chako, and Sharla were all staring straight at Howard with their jaws lowered a little.

The boy's mouth was twisted into an angry snarl, but he had a tear dripping down the right side of his face. _Papa, what do we do? Why, wh-why did you have to die?_ The droplet fell off Howard's chin and splashed on his hand that was resting on the table.

He was snapped from his thoughts and looked down at the water in confusion. Howard shook his head, he couldn't spend too much time thinking about that or he knew he'd break down again. _What we need to do now is fix the communications,_ Howard got up and decided to go on a walk, it would be good to clear his head and pass the time while Shingo worked on the device again.

The three girls in the treehouse watched him leave and rubbed their eyes, wondering what they just saw. Chako decided she didn't have enough sleep and went back to her room to get some more, while the other two went outside to set the table.

"I think," Luna started while she put down some of the placemats, "Shingo is homesick."

"Homesick?" Sharla asked. "Hmm, I guess I should have known. I feel it pretty bad, so since Shingo's two years younger he must be feeling it double." She looked up at Luna and asked, "What should we do to cheer Shingo up?"

"For now I think we should just leave him be," Luna suggested but she was still frowning.

"Is there something else on your mind?" Sharla asked, already kind of knowing who it was.

Luna nodded and looked off into the forest. They always scolded Kaoru for going off on his own, but no one said a word when Howard stormed off into the jungle earlier. "I don't know what happened to Howard, but doesn't he seem a lot sadder recently?"

Sharla nodded, "Uh huh, ever since that ship crashed, with those poor people on it." Luna knew what the girl meant and they all avoided that section of the woods to stay away from the graves. Sharla's face lit up and she turned to her friend with a nervous look, "Do you think, maybe he knew someone on the ship?"

The orange haired girl shook her head but stopped herself before responding. _The way he was looking at their bodies, what if they were people he knew?!_ Luna's eyes widened and she replied, "If they were, then it all makes sense. They weren't just employees, they could have been friends of his as well."

"It's scary to think about," Sharla whispered, wondering what she would have done if they were her friends. _I probably would have screamed..._ Her mouth dropped as she remembered Howard's raspy scream that made her blood churn. It was a scream of a child who'd just lost someone close to him.

"I'm going to ask him about it next time we're alone," Luna said, thinking the same thing. Since it was a touchy topic, she didn't want Howard to break down in front of everyone. "I'll find out if he knew anyone on that ship."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

"Stop it Howard!" Luna shouted. She was too late and the damage had been done. "Wait Shingo!"

Shingo was running out the front gate and the others called out after him, but he was in the woods and gone before any of them could follow him. The group of students all turned and glared at the blond boy who went too far with his insults.

"Why would you say that?" Sharla demanded to know. The usually quiet girl was frowning at the mean boy who stared right back at all of them.

"I'm right though! Crying about missing his mom and dad, what a brat!" He couldn't believe when he came in to check if Shingo had fixed the comms machine that the younger boy was asleep and sobbing about how he wanted to go home. It made him so mad, though as he looked out over the fence and towards the woods he frowned, _Maybe I did say too much... Shingo._

"That was too cruel Howard," Luna shook her head, disappointed in the boy she thought had changed.

"After all the trouble he's already been through skipping grades," Menori frowned, "Shingo's trying the best he can."

 _Shingo I..._

Chako turned to him and pointed a finger, "You're one to talk," the cat scolded. Howard made fun of him for calling out for his Mommy and Chako was mad, "You're the one who's always yelling, 'Papa!'"

"Let's go look for him," Bell said, turning away from Howard and addressing the others. "He couldn't have gone far."

The children all nodded at Bell and left the yard. None of them spent the time to look at Howard and scold him again, they were too worried about their youngest member for that. If they did look though, they would have realized Howard's face twisted the second Chako mentioned his Papa. The pink cat was the only one who saw Howard's rage-filled eyes before the child sprinted off in the opposite direction.

"Shingo!"

"Shingo!"

The students were running trough the forest near Everyone's House. They were looking in a group of two and a group of three. Menori looked at their leader and frowned, "We could split up more if one more person came to help." They knew who she was suggesting and they were all annoyed that Howard wasn't out there searching with them.

"I'm sure he'll realize he was wrong. Shingo's been trying his hardest for all of us since we got here," Sharla stated and the other girls nodded.

It was another hour before the entire group met up, all of them empty-handed. Howard watched from the tree-line as the group started talking and he frowned. _This isn't a joke, Shingo's really hurt. But, it's not like, he's the only one who's lonely._ The blonde boy turned around and ran off through the trees. _There's only one place he could be._

Menori swore she saw Howard standing next to a tree behind Bell when the group was talking. She saw him turn and run, but she didn't mention it to the others.

"I think he's hurt worse than we thought," Sharla whispered.

"And it's all Howard's fault," Chako added and crossed her arms. No one said anything to defend the boy. Even Luna, after being saved by the kid twice, was mad at him for what he said to Shingo.

"Let's keep searching," Luna suggested. Her thoughts were split between how disappointed she was with Howard and how worried she was about the younger boy. At the moment she was frowning and wondering why Howard wasn't out there looking with them.

The group split up and Menori broke off from her group of three. She decided to head in the direction Howard ran off to. She'd have to knock some sense into him if giving him time wasn't going to work.

* * *

Howard climbed up the side of the crashed shuttle on the beach. His hand grabbed into the chipped top part and the kid inside turned to him. "Shingo," the older kid started. He had his knees on the outer shell of the ship and he reached down into his pocket.

It was something that even at the time, he knew it was wrong, but he stole the kid's family photo. Something about it made him so angry, probably the smiles on all of their faces. "Here," he whispered and the kid jumped up and snatched his photo back. Shingo was glaring hard at Howard who accepted he deserved it and kept looking down.

The sun was setting over the water and Howard could see how upset Shingo had gotten over what he said. The boy was even sitting inside the crashed shuttle, wishing himself home like it would work.

Shingo didn't want to talk to Howard and he turned around, waiting for the older, snobby boy to leave. The blonde kid turned around too and sat with his back to Shingo. He was so mad at himself for causing the kid this much pain. _Papa wouldn't be proud of me. I'm not even proud of me. Making fun of him for missing his parents..._ He furrowed his brow, "Making me worry about you," the older boy whispered, breaking the silence.

Shingo heard him and turned his head a little, seeing Howard staring out over the water. "I miss my Papa," he said softly, and then shouted it at the top of his lungs, "Papa I miss you!" He snapped his head up at the sky and stared up at the clouds. "I'm so sorry, and I miss you!"

The child standing behind him couldn't believe what Howard was doing. Yeah, maybe it was just to make him feel better, but he was stunned Howard would shout something embarrassing like that. Still... Shingo looked down at the photo in his hand and Howard looked back to see if it worked.

The younger boy was still frowning and the older child sighed. His heart was tearing, but he sat down on the steel again and stared down at the kid inside the shuttle. "Just be happy they're waiting for you."

Shingo looked up from the photo and stared at Howard. The blonde kid was looking back, but his eyes weren't focused and he looked afraid. "Your mom and dad, your little brother and sister, they're all waiting for you to get home. And it's not just you who misses your family," he added and the little boy pushed up his glasses and listened. "Menori, Luna, Sharla, Bell, Kaoru, they all miss their families. Everyone wants to go home, but you can do it."

The kid he was talking to looked up in surprise and Howard smiled at him. "I really think you can fix it, and then we'll all get to go home."

Howard held out a hand and Shingo looked at it. The kid grabbed on and his classmate pulled him up through the hole in the roof to the top of the shuttle. "Hold on," Shingo whispered as Howard started walking back. The boy turned, then tilted his head up to the sky like Howard did before, "Mom! Dad! I'll definitely fix the communication system and bring everyone home to meet you!"

They both smiled and then hopped off the ship. Howard and Shingo walked back towards Everyone's House in silence, and they didn't notice the black haired girl who was following them the entire time.

Menori was watching Howard and frowned the entire time she watched them. She didn't know what the blond boy was doing, but after what he said to the younger boy, she didn't believe he changed his mind so fast. She thought he was faking it.

When they got near Everyone's house, Shingo suggested they go around and let everyone know he was back. "You just go inside and do your thing, I'll get them back here," Howard said and the younger boy smiled. Shingo ran for the treehouse, trying to hopefully finish the comms before the end of the night.

Howard turned around and walked a few steps into the woods before Menori stepped out from behind a tree. "Menori," he said in a surprised voice, "uh, Shingo's back."

"I saw," the girl responded with her arms crossed. "'Papa I miss you,' really?" She thought he was tricking Shingo into doing more work, but his face showed he wasn't lying back there. "Well, I mean," she scratched her neck, "I miss my parents too." She admitted.

Howard was still looking at the ground. He couldn't believe she'd heard that, and what was worse, she made fun of him for it. "Of course I miss my Papa," he said in a low tone and walked straight towards her. With a shove of his hand he pushed her aside and she stumbled away with wide-eyes. "He was the only one I had left."

Menori stared at the kid who walked away and started shouting, "Guys! Shingo's back!"

She didn't know what to make of what he said to her. The smug, arrogant, and recently completely selfless Howard just admitted he missed his dad. _And that he was the only one he had left? What does that mean? Is his mom dead too?_

* * *

That night, the whole group of lost students sat around the table while Shingo worked on the communications machine. "That's enough Shingo, you can give up already," Howard spoke in a soft tone.

Some of the students there smiled, thinking the lectures they gave Howard about not being mean to Shingo anymore were paying off. When they got back and saw Shingo, they all tried to keep the blond boy as far from possible and yelled at him until night fell.

Menori was staring across the room though, the only one not watching Shingo work. Her eyes were focused on Howard who was pretending not to notice her stare. "Alright, here we go," the youngest of their group said. Menori finally turned her head as Shingo spoke, as he and Chako were getting started.

There was some static coming from the machine for a few seconds, and then it stopped and they opened their mouths wide. "Shingo the emergency broadcast!" Chako shouted.

"Yeah," the boy flipped open a glass panel and pressed a red button.

 _We did it, we're finally going to leave,_ Howard was mentally jumping for joy as they waited for someone to pick up on the other end.

"Chhh," the static sounded and then a voice was heard, "em ot emoC. em ot emoC."

"We're connected!" Shingo shouted.

"We can go home! We can go home!" Howard jumped out of his seat and waved his arms around. Everyone was celebrating and Howard smiled at Shingo, _I knew you could do it._

He looked around at all his friends and exclaimed, "If they responded, that means they're coming to get us!"

"Mina," Luna whispered, "this voice," her tone was ominous and everyone froze and turned to her. "Is the one I've been hearing in my head."

"This one?" Menori asked.

"Then we didn't make contact with anyone?" Sharla questioned as well.

"What?" Howard looked out of the living room and to the east. _They're stopping our transmission. It looks like we really do have an enemy._ He was afraid. The blond kid hated that these people could control giant crabs, and block their transmissions, and there wasn't anything he could do to stop it. He started walking away.

"What did the voice say?" Bell asked the orange haired girl who was watching Howard walk towards the stairs.

"I don't know," she got out of her seat as Howard took a step down. "Where are you going?" She asked him.

"Outside," he responded and Shingo and Chako shared a knowing look. The two of them walked to the window of the living room and watched Howard step out the front door. The rich boy grabbed the bow off the tree where he left it and started shooting right away.

The other kids made their ways over to the window and stared down at Howard who was getting closer to his target with every shot. It unnerved them how seriously the boy was taking this situation, and most of them just wanted to go to sleep at this point after a long day of wandering the jungle.

Kaoru frowned as he watched an arrow get pretty close to the cup leaning on the fence, but he yawned and decided to go to bed like the other boys. He got into the room where Shingo was talking to Bell about how there must be a civilization on the planet somewhere.

The girls decided to go to sleep one by one until only Menori remained watching him. She stared down for a few minutes longer and then what he said echoed through her mind. _"He was the only one I had left,"_ she clenched her fists and then marched for the stairs.

She walked out the front door and straight up to the kid who dropped his bow and took a step back. He'd been on the receiving end of one of Menori's slaps before and was hoping one wasn't coming. "Is your mom dead?" She questioned him.

For such a delicate question, she asked it quite harshly. Maybe that was why Howard didn't answer it like one and just nodded his head. "Oh," she said, getting her answer but not knowing what to do with it, "sorry."

"I'm sorry about your mom too," Howard replied without thinking about it, and then he wished he had.

Menori's head shot up and her eyes went wide, "Luna told you?!" She exclaimed.

"No, wait," he held up his hands and then looked at the treehouse, "Luna knows?"

"Yes," the Student Council President answered and then pointed a finger at him accusingly, "how do you?"

"Because," he answered sheepishly and looked her straight in the eyes. His arms were at his sides and he looked nervous but he said it anyway, "I was there, at the funeral."

If Menori's eyes were large before, now they were saucers as she stared at the boy in front of her. He continued in a tone a child would use if they were caught doing something had by a parent. "I didn't know who the funeral was for, but my dad said I had to go with him. I also didn't know who the little girl was, who cried out her mother's name and reached for the coffin."

The girl's mouth couldn't get any wider but she gasped and took a step back. "It's okay though," he said to her, "I cried at my parents' funerals too. You don't have to hide when you're sad," he didn't know what else he could say, but he'd avoided being slapped so far. _I don't think I've ever spoken this long with Menori before,_ he realized as the two of them stared at each other.

"Y-you," she started in a shaky voice, "you saw all that, and you never mentioned it to me?"

He looked down and responded truthfully, "I didn't think, you'd want me to bring it up." Howard stared at the dirt beneath him and whispered, "I'd understand if you were mad at-"

Menori reached forward and pulled Howard into the tightest hug he'd ever felt. She was squeezing the air out of his lungs, but even though he was completely confused, he started hugging her back. "Thank you for not telling anyone," she whispered into his ear. Because of what happened when Shingo cried out for his mom and Howard told everyone, she assumed he was a loudmouth. Yet somehow, he'd kept her crying a secret all these years.

They released the hug and the two of them stared into each other's eyes from up close for a few seconds. "Well, uh yeah," Howard looked away and got a little red in the face as he stared off into the forest. "Want to just, forget about this whole conversation?" It was a little too gooey for both of them and Menori nodded fast as she wiped away the water forming in her eyes and smiled once more at him.

"Agreed," she said and then turned around. He watched her leave and then picked up his bow once she got in the front door.

"Howard," Menori whispered with a wide smile on her face. He made her feel better about what happened back then, and better yet, his hug was so warm.

The girl shook her head, _You're a serious person, get control of yourself._ She took one step up the stairs and then froze. Her head slowly turned back towards the door and her eyes got wider than they ever did while she was talking to Howard. _Did he say, 'parents' funerals? Maybe he misspoke, maybe he meant just his mom... or maybe he didn't._

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Love hearing the feedback from you guys. And I'll try to keep the chapters coming so, see ya soon!**


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